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ClassJ^7 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSUV 




A TYPICAL SAVINGS-BANK— A GREAT PROMOTER OF THRIFT 



STORIES OF THRIFT 



FOR 



YOUNG AMERICANS 

BY 

MYRON T. PRITCHARD 

PRINCIPAL OF EVERETT SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS. 

AND 

GRACE A. TURKINGTON 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 



- 






Copyright, 1915, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




NQV 271915 
2CU414793 






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PREFACE 

One of our richest men has said: " Thrift is such a 
simple thing — and it means so much. It is the founda- 
tion of success in business, of contentment in the home, 
of standing in society." Perhaps it is because thrift is 
such a simple thing that so many of us have only a slight 
acquaintance with it. This country is full of rich and 
wonderful things ; and the boy and the girl, long before 
they are out of the grammar school, set their hearts on 
attaining some of these wonders as quickly as possible. 
They overlook the simple joys and the simple habits, not 
realizing that the world's treasures are obtained only by 
those who have first mastered the art of simple living. 

The secret of simple living is thrift — thrift of time, 
money, body, and brain — and only upon this can the boy 
or the girl build securely for success. But in this, as in 
other things, young people must be instructed, for both 
the man who piles up his thousands and the man who 
wantonly wastes his dollars are only creatures of habit. 
Those who are to succeed must have the habit of thrift. 
The boy who, when he is fifteen years old, knows how 
to make his suits and his shoes last as long as possible, 



iv PREFACE 

who wastes neither his study-time nor his play-time, who 
already has a bank account, however small, who takes 
sensible care of his health, is sure to succeed. He may 
not make a fortune in dollars and cents, but he will be 
independent and a credit to the community in which he 
lives. 

To many persons the word "thrift" suggests only the 
saving of money, and those who are not earners feel that 
it is not for them to make thrift their motto. But the 
mother in the home who so plans her meals that her family 
gets the maximum of nourishment for the least expendi- 
ture of money and without any waste is as truly thrifty 
as the woman who works for wages and each month adds 
to her bank account. So also the boy or the girl who 
wastes no opportunities and guards carefully the health 
of the body is forming habits of thrift that will mean 
happiness and prosperity in the future. Children are 
quick to see the folly of waste once it is pointed out to 
them, and no child should go untaught in this important 
matter. 

The tide of popular opinion for vocational training is 
running strong, and is, perhaps, the greatest single thrift 
factor now in operation. Training for a life-work means 
preventing boys and girls from wasting their lives, but 
even a well-trained brain and body may take a boy to 
failure if he has not also learned how to spend wisely and 



PREFACE v 

how to save. The slogan of this country in the future 
must be "Conservation of all our resources/' but not 
until each grammar-school graduate knows how to prac- 
tise true thrift will the highest prosperity of the coun- 
try be assured. 

The parents and teachers of today have an unusual 
opportunity to train for efficiency the men and women 
of tomorrow. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. What Thrift Is 1 

II. Saving Health 6 

III. Savings-Bank 17 

IV. The "Making-Over" Club 29 

V. The "Making-Over" Club (continued) . . 40 

VI. Wise Spending 51 

VII. Spare Time 63 

VIII. One Wat Out 74 

IX. One Way Out (continued) 85 

X. Being Poor 94 

XI. Wasted Old People 106 

XII. Being Rich 118 

XIII. Right Giving 126 

XIV. Saving Money 141 

XV. Keeping Accounts 150 

XVI. The Cost of Carelessness and Neglect . . 162 

XVII. Leaving School 172 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 



PAGE 



XVIII. If You Had a Hundred Dollars .... 183 

XIX. Cleanliness and Thrift 193 

XX. Owning a Home 207 

XXI. How a Nation Helps to Save 216 



STORIES OF THRIFT 

FOB 

YOUNG AMERICANS 



STORIES OF THRIFT FOR YOUNG 
AMERICANS 



WHAT THRIFT IS 

"I think Emma Jones is just as stingy as she can be," 
said Esther Madison to her mother, one night when the 
two were washing dishes. 

"I should think twice before I said anything as un- 
kind as that about one of my friends," her mother re- 
plied. "Tell me what you mean." 

"Why, this afternoon five of us girls were going to 
buy some candy. We were each to give five cents, but 
Emma wouldn't; she's always that way. She never 
treats any of the girls to soda, or spends her money on 
having a good time." 

Mrs. Madison looked thoughtful as she said: "Emma 
has always impressed me as being a bright, sensible girl. 
She doesn't look at all mean or selfish. Perhaps she 
had a good reason for not spending her money on candy." 

It was nearly a month after this conversation that, 
one Sunday, Esther asked her father for money to buy 



2 STORIES OF THRIFT 

a pair of skates, saying: "Emma has just bought a 
lovely pair, and her brother is teaching her." 

"H'm, so you want a pair of skates? How much will 
they cost?" asked her father. 

"Three dollars is what Emma paid." 

"Can't you buy them out of your spending-money ? 
That's what I give you twenty cents a week for," said 
Mr. Madison. "How much money have you, any- 
way?" 

Esther's face grew red, and she fidgeted a little as 
she said: "Why, I haven't any. Twenty cents a week 
isn't much. If I saved it I couldn't have any fun." 

"Something's wrong somewhere," said her father. 
"Sit down and write out how you have spent your 
money for the last month, and let me see it." 

Mrs. Madison said nothing, but looked amused as 
Esther sat nibbling the end of her pencil and trying to 
remember how her money had been spent. Finally she 
handed her father a slip of paper, which read as follows: 

Candy $.30 

Bracelet 50 

"Bracelet, fifty cents!" her father repeated. "What 
does that mean? What kind of bracelet can you buy 
for fifty cents? Go get it, please. I should like to see 
it." 



WHAT THRIFT IS 3 

In a moment Esther was back and laid on the table 
a silver-colored bracelet, set with some small blue stones. 

"Do you think this is either pretty or useful?" asked 
her father. " Of course, you know that there isn't a bit of 
silver in it, and that these stones are nothing but glass." 

Esther tried to defend herself by saying: "All the girls 
have bracelets, and I think they are pretty." 

"Does Emma Jones wear a bracelet to school?" 
asked Mr. Madison. 

"No, but she's the only girl that doesn't. She is 
stingy with her money." 

"Why, I thought you liked Emma; you are always 
asking your mother if you can't go up to her house 
Saturdays. If she is stingy, she can't be a nice girl to 
have good times with." 

"What I mean is, she won't spend money to have a 
good time, as the other girls do. But I like to go up 
to her house because she can always plan interesting 
things to do." 

Her father smiled as he said: "I suppose what you 
mean is that she doesn't spend her money for candy 
and bracelets. If that is so, she is a girl that her father 
might well be proud of, and I hope you'll learn from 
her. There is nothing more vulgar than wearing cheap 
jewelry, so I want you to throw away the bracelet at 
once." 



4 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Don't you suppose, Esther/' her mother asked, 
"that Emma bought the skates with the money she 
might have spent on candy?" 

"Perhaps so," admitted Esther reluctantly. 

"One of the differences between a wise person and a 
foolish person, and between a rich man and a poor man," 
said Mrs. Madison, "is that one spends his money 
carefully and wisely, and the other unwisely. Emma's 
father is just as poor as that Mr. Lathrop whose chil- 
dren are always out at the elbows, and whose fences are 
always tumbled down, but Mr. Jones and his family 
are thrifty people, while Mr. Lathrop isn't." 

"What is thrifty?" interrupted Esther. 

"Well," said her father, "Emma is thrifty and you 
are not. But don't think that thrifty means stingy, 
for it doesn't. I will let you think it over, and you 
can tell me later what the word means." 

Esther forgot all about the talk until Thursday night, 
when, on the way home from school, her cousin Robert 
and some of his boy friends joined her. 

"Why don't you learn to skate, Esther?" asked her 
cousin. "Emma Jones has been learning and we are 
having great fun. She's going to be one of the finest 
girl skaters around here before long." 

Esther thought more of her cousin's good opinion 
than she would have admitted and it hurt her pride to 



WHAT THRIFT IS 5 

have to say that she could not afford any skates just 
then but hoped she could have a pair next winter. It 
was becoming plain to her that a person might get more 
pleasure out of money spent in one way than that spent 
in another. She could not even remember how the 
candy that she had bought last week tasted, and since 
her father said her bracelet had no silver in it she had 
not enjoyed wearing it. 

"Father says that I haven't been thrifty and have 
wasted my spending money/' said Esther to Robert. 
"What does thrifty mean, anyway ?" 

"Why, I always supposed it meant prosperous, but 
I'm not sure. I'll ask Miss Martin tomorrow." So the 
next day Robert asked his teacher what the word meant. 

"It means being industrious in whatever you under- 
take, wasting nothing, whether time, money, or ma- 
terials. The really thrifty persons are those who waste 
nothing and spend wisely." 

When Esther repeated this to her father, he said: 
"That's my idea exactly. And I'm sure if you will be 
thrifty for the next year, at the end of it you will be 
happier and more useful to your mother and to your 
friends than you are now." 



II 

SAVING HEALTH 

"Take her out of school at once/' said the doctor to 
Mrs. Emery. "You can't afford to run any risks. 
Mary is five pounds under her normal weight, and is 
decidedly anaemic." 

"What's anaemic?" asked Mary. 

"Your blood is too thin; perhaps you might call it 
watery. It takes good ; rich red blood to study on, and 
until you improve at least fifty per cent you must keep 
out of school and build up your health." 

Mary's face was sober and the tears were near the 
surface. She had thought it was going to be great fun 
to consult the doctor and have to take little pink tab- 
lets with her meals, as her chum Etta Roberts did. But 
to leave school was something she hadn't dreamed of. 
Why — she simply couldn't ! That was all there was to 
it. To stay out of school six months meant that she 
would fall so far behind in all her studies that she would 
have to go in with the next lower class. But Mary 
knew that it would be futile to argue with the doctor. 



SAVING HEALTH 7 

He had a stern face and was used to having his patients 
do exactly as he directed. 

That night Mary wept a good many tears into her 
pillow. 

The next day at school she stayed in at recess to tell 
her teacher what the doctor had said. "But I am not 
sick, Miss Elwood," Mary added plaintively. "Won't 
you please ask mother to let me stay?" 

Miss Elwood replied that she would talk with her 
about it after school. Mary Emery was one of the best 
scholars in her grade, but she had for a long time been 
nervous and pale. That afternoon, with pleading eyes 
and nervous fingers, Mary waited to hear what her 
teacher would say. 

"I am going to suggest an experiment for you to make, 
Mary/' said Miss Elwood. Mary looked a little per- 
plexed but hopeful. "You won't like it, but I think it 
is the only way that you can remain in school. If you 
are anaemic, then neither your muscles nor your nerves 
get the food they need. This is what makes you pale, 
gives you headaches, and makes you want to cry so 
often. In a few years you will either break down en- 
tirely or just be a fretful, uninteresting girl that every- 
body will be sorry for but that few will like." 

"I never knew that people stopped liking you just 
because you were sick," said Mary. 



8 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Suppose that every time your friends asked you to 
play a certain game you said your head ached too badly, 
how long would they keep asking you? Or, if every 
time a girl came to your house to see you, you were too 
tired to make her have a good time, would she keep com- 
ing? No, Mary, sickly people seldom have as many 
friends as those who are well." 

"I never thought of that before," murmured Mary. 

"I think I know better, even than the doctor, what 
has made you anaemic . How much spending-money do 
you have?" 

Mary, astonished, answered: "Twenty-five cents a 
week." 

"And what do you do with it?" 

"Why, I buy things, of course." 

"I believe that the secret of your trouble, Mary, lies 
in that twenty-five cents a week. The things that you 
buy with the money are harmful to you. I have noticed 
that you have more candy, cookies, and pickled limes 
than most of the other girls. At recess time, instead of 
going out into the yard to run about, you get in a corner 
with a bag of candy and read. Cookies and candy are 
all right in their place, but they are too sweet and rich 
to eat between meals. One reason why you are anaemic 
is because you spoil your appetite by eating too much 
sweet and sour stuff." 



SAVING HEALTH 9 

"I never spend more than five cents a day for candy/' 
said Mary. 

"Nevertheless; I am sure that what little candy you 
eat keeps you from being healthily hungry at meal- 
time, so that you fail to eat as much meat, potato, and 
other nourishing food as you need. Isn't this true?" 

"Perhaps so/' Mary admitted reluctantly. 

"Now," continued Miss Elwood, "my suggestion is 
this: I want you for three months to save all your spend- 
ing-money, and to promise not to eat any candy, pickles, 
or cookies between meals." 

Mary's face was disconsolate and a few tears trickled 
down her cheeks, but Miss Elwood continued: 

"Then I want you to spend all your recesses out-of- 
doors. If you don't care to play games, then have a 
walking race with some of your friends. Stir about 
enough to fill your lungs with fresh air and make your 
blood circulate more freely. 

"In addition to these two parts of the experiment 
there is a third. You do not always wear the most 
sensible things, and perhaps this explains where some of 
your spending-money goes. Now that the weather is 
rainy and cold, you ought to protect yourself with high 
boots and rubbers. Instead of that, much of the time 
you wear thin stockings and pumps, which are fit only 
to wear in the house. It would be much better for you 



10 STORIES OF THRIFT 

to save your money and buy warm stockings, sensible 
shoes, good rubbers, and overshoes. 

"Now, if for three months you are willing to go with- 
out candy and pickles and eat only nourishing food, to 
keep out-of-doors all that you can, and to put your pumps 
and thin stockings away until next summer, I will try to 
persuade your mother and the doctor to let you stay in 
school for three months longer. At the end of that 
time, if you have followed my suggestions, I think the 
doctor will say you are almost well." 

"But the doctor didn't tell me not to eat candy/' 
Mary said appealingly. 

Miss Elwood looked a little stern as she answered: 
"He probably doesn't know that you spend twenty-five 
cents each week on such things. Do you want me to 
explain this to him?" 

Mary was earnest in her protests, and at once prom- 
ised to make the experiment. 

"You must not let this spoil your good times, Mary," 
her teacher said kindly. "Remember that nobody can 
be happy without good health." 

The experiment was not an easy one. Mary at first 
accepted candy from her schoolmates, although her con- 
science told her that this was not fair. But after a 
little she held to the rule to eat cookies and all very 
sweet things only after regular meals. She was sur- 



SAVING HEALTH 11 

prised to find that after a dinner of meat and potato or a 
supper of simple, nourishing food she could not eat more 
than two or three pieces of candy. 

Mary and her brother Robert had always called milk 
babies' food, and had refused to drink it with their meals. 
To Mrs. Emery's surprise, soon after Mary's talk with 
her teacher, she asked if she could have a glass of milk 
with her supper. Robert at once spoke up: "Babies' 
food! I thought you had outgrown long dresses years 
ago." 

"Well, you'd better not talk. It's a secret. I can't 
tell you about it now, but for three months I'm going 
to drink milk every night," answered Mary. 

Robert was much impressed by the idea of a secret, 
and teased to be told what it was, but his sister refused 
to explain. 

One day, a few weeks later, Miss Elwood telephoned 
to her principal and asked him to come to her room a 
moment. It was recess time, and when the principal 
appeared Miss Elwood called him to the window and 
pointed out a group of girls. Mary Emery was teach- 
ing several of her friends to vault a sawhorse that the 
carpenters had been using. No one could do it quite 
so well as Mary herself, but they were all trying. 

"Who is the leader?" asked the principal. 

"Mary Emery," replied the teacher. 



12 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Not the sickly girl that you were afraid wouldn't be 
promoted ?" 

"The very same/' and Miss Elwood smiled at the as- 
tonished look on the principal's face. 

"How did you do it, Miss Elwood?" 

"Mary is doing it herself. I will tell you about it 
later." 

The result of the experiment was that Mary gained 
six pounds, lost her headaches, saved two dollars, and 
did not lose a day at school. Not only this, but Mary's 
mother was saved a large doctor's bill, and Mary at least 
a half-year's time at school. 

The person who always takes the best possible care of 
his health, saves himself both time and money. Many 
girls and boys fail in their written tests just because 
they have been sitting up too late at night, or eating too 
much sweet food. Of course there is always the chance 
that a boy who has failed may make up for failures by 
studying extra hard. But this is a waste of time, for he 
needs all this energy for new work. The boy who is 
always trying to make up for time lost through sickness, 
when he gets out into the world will have to compete 
with the boy who is always well. 

Men who are interested in the health of school-children 
have figured out that it takes the pupils who attend 
school in a building improperly heated, lighted, and ven- 



SAVING HEALTH 13 

tilated nearly two years longer to complete the course of 
eight grades than it does those children whose school is 
sanitary in every way. That is why old school build- 
ings are being torn down or made over. The health of 
the boys and girls of our nation is regarded as of the 
greatest value ; and towns and cities are willing to spend 
large sums of money to provide clean, sanitary buildings 
for school purposes. No boy or girl wants to spend two 
years more than is necessary in preparing for the high 
school. But the school cannot do everything. If the 
pupils are given a warm, airy building, they must do 
their part to keep well. 

A group of schoolboys was one day heard discussing 
Henry Fowler's "bad luck." They had just had a 
written test in arithmetic, and three of the questions 
were on factoring. Henry had been sick with a severe 
cold when the class had studied factoring. 

"Oh, Henry," suggested one of the boys, "I think 
Miss Elwood would excuse you on those questions if 
you asked her. You couldn't help being sick." 

After a little urging Henry went to his teacher, and 
asked if she would please not mark him on the factoring 
examples. He explained that he had been sick, and 
promised to make up the work as soon as possible. Miss 
Elwood said she would consider the matter. But when 
she found that Henry was wasteful of his time, that he 



14 STORIES OF THRIFT 

had caught cold by splashing in a shallow pond all one 
Saturday afternoon, and had not tried to make up the 
behindhand work, she went to the principal. 

The next day the principal talked with Henry a long 
time. 

"The boys who are going to be the important men in 
a few years," he said, "are those who are the most saving 
of their health and their time now. You are much more 
likely to have another hard cold because your body has 
already been weakened by one. The city is paying for 
your schooling whether you are present or not. There- 
fore when you are sick you are not only spending money 
for medicine and a doctor, but you are wasting your 
mother's time and your teacher's. Do you think this 
is quite fair ? Your teacher is here every day, and every 
day the lessons are on time. If Miss Elwood should 
happen to be too ill to come to school, the city would 
provide another teacher, so that not a single pupil should 
be cheated of help in his studies. Your teacher has to 
take the greatest care of her health in order to be here 
every day. If she were as careless about her eating 
and the way she spent her spare time as you are, all the 
pupils would be behind in their lessons." 

Henry said nothing further to the boys about getting 
excused from his examination. He had learned a lesson, 
and there were no more foolish Saturday afternoons. 



SAVING HEALTH 15 

Health is wasted not only by school boys and girls, 
but by those who have left school and gone to work. A 
New York business man who employs many boys and 
young men says that when he has to hire a new boy, 
he always looks for one brought up in the country. One 
of the reasons that he gives is that the country boy is 
apt to be healthier, and therefore more valuable for busi- 
ness purposes than a city boy. He has eaten hearty, 
nourishing food, and has had plenty of fresh air and exer- 
cise. He hasn't formed the bad habit of spending money 
for sodas and cigarettes. The business man knows that 
the boy who smokes and has the soda habit is wasting 
both money and health. And no young person can hope 
to be successful without good health. 

A large department store in New York City has had 
so many absences from work that the managers have 
been studying to see what the matter was. Since the 
store employs several hundred girls and young women, 
it was losing money by the frequent absences, and of 
course the girls were also losing money. The managers 
decided that many girls did not know how to keep well, 
and also did not realize the value of keeping well. They 
therefore fitted up in the store a splendid gymnasium, 
with spray baths and a lounging-room. Now each girl 
has to be examined by the gymnasium director, and to 
spend a certain amount of time each day doing gym- 



16 STORIES OF THRIFT 

nastic exercises. It costs this store several thousand 
dollars each year to help care for the health of its girl 
employees. But it is cheaper to do this than to have 
the girls absent every few days. 

Sickness is always expensive for somebody — the school, 
the store, or the home. It pays to keep well. 



Ill 

THE SAVINGS-BANK 

William Hayes had an aunt who every year sent him 
five dollars for Christmas. The year that William was 
twelve he was especially eager for Christmas to come, 
because he wanted an Indian blanket for his room, and 
a punching-bag for the little gymnasium that he had in 
the attic. The expected letter came and was kept un- 
opened until Christmas morning. But it was with a 
very sober face that William handed the letter to his 
mother after he had read it. 

"Dear William/' the letter began, "you are now old 
enough to start a bank account, and I am therefore send- 
ing you a check for five dollars for you to put into a 
savings-bank. It is not to be spent now. I hope that 
you will add to it as often as possible, so that when you 
are through the high school you will have a tidy little 
sum to help you to go to college, or to get a start in 
some business. Many a man owes his success to the 
few dollars that he had saved to help him when through 
school." 

17 



18 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Well ; I call that pretty mean!" said William. He 
almost wanted to cry, he was so disappointed. 

"If Aunt Mary had ever been a boy she would have 
known better than that/' he grumbled. 

"Come, come/' said his father. "You're only show- 
ing how silly and ignorant you are by such remarks. 
Of course, you ought to start a bank account right away. 
How much money of your own have you?" 

"Only a dollar, and I shall need that toward a punch- 
ing-bag, so long as I can't spend Aunt Mary's money." 

Mr. Hayes seemed not to hear the last part of Wil- 
liam's remark, and said: "Since you don't have to go 
to school tomorrow, you can bring the six dollars down 
to my office at eleven o'clock, and I will take you to 
lunch. Then we will go to the bank." 

William's face lighted up, for of all the things that he 
liked best, lunching with his father stood at the head of 
the list. 

Just then his sister Miriam, three years younger than 
he, interrupted with: "Let me see your money from 
Aunt Mary." 

"That!" she said in disgust, as William handed her 
the check. "Why, that's only a piece of paper." 

"It stands for money, nevertheless," said the boy. 
"Father can take this to the bank, and they will give 
him a five-dollar bill for it." 



THE SAVINGS-BANK 19 

"Isn't that queer?" And Miriam carefully read aloud 
what was printed and written on the paper. 



$5.00 New York, Dec. 21, 1914. 

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK 

Pay to the order of William Hayes 

Five Dollars 

No. 62 Mary H. Allen. 



"We don't live in New York/' said Miriam. "How 
can a bank in New York pay you the money unless you 
are there?" 

William looked quite important as he explained what 
he had just learned about checks in school. 

"You see, Aunt Mary keeps some of her money in 
this New York bank, and when she wants to pay a bill 
or give a present of money, she writes out this kind of 
order. Father can take this to any bank where they 
know him, and get it turned into money. The bank 
that pays the money to father will collect the same 
amount from the New York bank where Aunt Mary's 
money is." 

Miriam looked as if she didn't quite understand, but 
asked no further questions. 

The next day William blacked his shoes and cleaned 



20 STORIES OF THRIFT 

his finger-nails without being reminded to do so by his 
mother. He wanted to look his best, for the restaurant 
where his father always took him seemed pretty fine, 
and the men who talked with his father looked big and 
important. 

As he ate he listened to the conversation of the men. 
It interested him, even if he couldn't understand it all. 

"If we can get the Merchants Bank to let us have 
five thousand dollars by Friday/' said one of the men, 
"we can put this deal through." 

"Money is so tight," said another man, "that the 
banks are only making short-time loans, but I suppose 
you don't need this for more than two months." 

It was the Merchants Bank in which William was 
going to deposit his money, and he was all attention; 
but just then his father said that if they expected to get 
to the bank before it closed they would have to be going. 

"Father," said William, "those must be very rich 
men to talk of borrowing five thousand dollars." 

"No, my son," replied Mr. Hayes. "They are sim- 
ply keen business men." 

"I guess I should like to be a business man. Do you 
suppose I can?" 

"I hope so," said the father. "That's why I am 
having you start your bank account today. To become 
a good business man you must know how to save money, 



THE SAVINGS-BANK 21 

how to invest money, and how to spend money. Today 
I am showing you one way to invest your six dollars. 
The bank will pay you four cents a year for every dollar 
that you put into it. This means that your six dollars 
will earn twenty-four -cents a year. This is investing 
your money. But, of course, you can't invest money 
until you have saved or earned it." 

They entered a large granite building which had mar- 
ble floors and rich furnishings. 

William was awed by the grandeur of the place and 
by the sight of so many earnest-looking men. He 
began to feel quite important, for he had already made 
up his mind that he should be a business man just as 
soon as he was old enough. 

They had to stand in line, for there were men, women, 
boys, and even girls, waiting their turn. 

"What are we waiting for?" asked William impa- 
tiently. 

"Why," answered his father, "there are twenty peo- 
ple ahead of us who have brought money to leave here." 

"Whew!" exclaimed William under his breath. 

Just then a plainly dressed woman who stood in front 
of William turned around, and he was surprised to hear 
his father say: "How do you do, Mrs. O'Brien." 

"I wonder who she is," thought William. "She 
doesn't look as if she had any money." But when they 



22 STORIES OF THRIFT 

reached the window he noticed that she gave the clerk 
ten dollars. 

"Who was that woman ; father?" 

"She is the dust-woman at our office. She doesn't 
earn much, but she is sensible and thrifty. Half the 
people who put money in the savings-banks are poor 
people. They are often wiser than the rich." 

When it came William's turn to stand at the window, 
Mr. Hayes said: "This is my son William, Mr. Parker. 
He's starting in today to be a business man. He has 
six dollars for you." 

When he left home William had intended to keep the 
dollar, and put in only the five that his aunt had sent, 
but he had now decided that every cent he could get 
should go into the bank. So he handed the teller the 
check and ten ten-cent pieces. 

He had already written his name in ink on the back 
of the check to show that it had passed through his 
hands. No bank will give money for a check that does 
not have on it the signature of the person whose name 
appears after the words "Pay to the order of." 

"Mr. Parker, I wish you would tell William about 
how much money you handle in here." 

"It varies, of course," said Mr. Parker. "Day before 
yesterday we took in about thirty thousand dollars." 
At this William started. 



THE SAVINGS-BANK 23 

"And what do you do with the money?" 

"We always keep a large amount here so that we can 
pay back money to those who want to take it out again. 
The rest we lend to business men and others. Day 
before yesterday we lent about ten thousand dollars. 
The men who borrow from us pay at least six per cent 
interest. " 

"So you see, William/' said his father, "the bank earns 
six cents for each of your dollars, so that it can pay you 
four cents. The other two cents go for expenses." 

"Perhaps those men at the restaurant will get my six 
dollars," said William. 

"Perhaps so, but the book that Mr. Parker has given 
you shows that you have opened a savings account 
with the bank, and at any time you can demand a part 
or all of your six dollars. This is your deposit, or pass- 
book. When you get older and have more money, 
you will want to start what they call a ' commercial 
account/ and have a check-book. Your commercial 
account would draw little or no interest, however, and 
would be useful only in paying bills by means of checks. 
But every business man must have such an account, 
for it would take too much of his time to pay everybody 
in money." 

That night William was telling his mother about Mrs. 
O'Brien, the dust-woman. 



24 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"What you say reminds me of my wash-woman/' 
said his mother. "One day she came here earlier than 
usual ; and said she must leave by twelve o'clock. I 
asked her why, and she told me she wanted to reach the 
bank before it closed. I supposed, of course, she in- 
tended to draw out some of her hard-earned savings. 
But I was wrong." 

"I have three bank books/' she said proudly. "I 
own my house, though a poor enough thing it is, and it's 
almost two thousand dollars that I have in the bank." 

"I told her," said Mrs. Hayes, "that I was proud to 
have such a wash-woman, and I am." 

Mr. Hayes was right in making William start a sav- 
ings account. Just to feel that he had a few dollars 
invested in a great bank made him much more thought- 
ful about how he spent his money. Often when he was 
tempted to spend ten cents for soda for himself and his 
chum, he would think: a No, it only takes ten tens to 
make a dollar, and I can put the dollar in the bank where 
it will earn four cents." 

One day as a business man entered his bank he passed 
a foreigner who looked so out of place there that he 
asked the teller who he was. 

"Why, he's one of our largest depositors," replied the 
teller. 



THE SAVINGS-BANK 25 

"What's the joke?" asked the man. 

"There's no joke at all," said the teller. "He works 
in the tannery, and earns three dollars a day. He evi- 
dently lives on ten dollars a week, for he puts an average 
of eight dollars a week in the bank. He has five of the 
brightest-eyed children you ever saw. They don't look 
starved, either." 

The business man looked puzzled. "But what is he 
saving his money for? Why doesn't he spend all that 
he earns and get some enjoyment out of life? I don't 
believe in poor people scrimping along like that." 

"We bank men can't agree with you. If it were not 
for the savings of people like this, we shouldn't have 
money to lend to men with which to carry on their busi- 
ness. Then, too, these poor folks have the greatest en- 
joyment in saving. Wasn't that man's face beaming 
when he went out? It's a real pleasure to me to have 
him come in. But," he added as he turned back to his 
desk, "he won't always be poor." 

It was perhaps six months after this that the same 
business man noticed a new fruit-stand at the corner 
near which he had his shoes shined. He stopped to buy 
an orange, and to his astonishment looked into the 
same beaming face that he had seen at the bank. 

"Well, well, Tony!" he exclaimed. "What does this 
mean? I thought you worked in the tannery?" 



26 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"I work now for myself," he said. 

The man stepped into the bank and accosted the teller 
with: "Your smiling friend has just started out in the 
fruit business, I see." 

"Yes," said the teller; "he has drawn out all his 
money except fifty dollars. He'll be a rich man yet, 
perhaps. You know that valuable piece of land at the 
end of your street? The Italian who has had the fruit 
stand on Market Street for years has just bought that 
lot." 

"I wonder how they do it? I can't seem to get 
money enough to buy any land." 

The teller looked very wise as he said: "You and I 
and many other people who are earning good salaries 
might learn a lesson from these foreigners who can't 
speak good English yet." 

One day in a large city where many foreigners live, 
Esther Rubin went to her teacher with sixty cents in 
pennies, and asked if she would keep it for her. 

"I earned it," she said proudly. "But we keep many 
lodgers at my house, and perhaps they will steal it." 

Miss Emerson was puzzled at first to know what was 
best to do. Finally, she went to the principal, and asked 
if she could start a school savings-bank in her room. 
"A good many schools are doing this now," she said. 



THE SAVINGS-BANK 27 

"That's a splendid idea/' agreed the principal, "and 
I think we should plan to have a school bank for all the 
rooms." 

The result was that a school savings-bank was started 
at once, and Esther Rubin's sixty pennies was the first 
deposit made in it. On the first banking day almost 
ten dollars was paid in by Miss Emerson's room. Each 
pupil received a deposit card, showing the date and the 
amount of money deposited. If a girl wanted to draw 
money out, she had to write on a slip of paper how much 
she wanted, and what it was to be spent for. She then 
handed this with her card to the teacher. 

One day Miss Emerson found on her desk Ruth 
Clark's deposit card, with this slip: 

" I should please like to draw out twenty cents so 
that I can go to the movies." 

"Why, Ruth," said Miss Emerson, "I thought it only 
cost ten cents for a seat at the moving-picture show." 

Ruth looked a little embarrassed as she explained: 
"But I want to go again tomorrow night." 

"Two nights running? I didn't know that they had 
new pictures every night." 

"They don't," said Ruth, "but I think it's fun to go 
even if I have seen the pictures before." 



28 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Miss Emerson looked so astonished that Ruth began 
to feel queer. 

"You may all give me your attention for a few min- 
utes," Miss Emerson said to the class. "I want to tell 
you about a woman that I know who has spoiled her 
home by what I call the moving-picture habit. She 
goes at least five nights every week. Sometimes she sees 
the same pictures two or three times, but she doesn't 
seem to care. She used to be a bright little woman and 
had a cheerful home. But now you would hardly know 
her. She is fretful, pale, and discontented. She sees so 
many pictures of homes that are much more beautiful 
than hers, and of women who have fine clothes, that she 
is always complaining because she has so little. She 
doesn't keep her house tidy, as she once did. 

"Any person who goes to a moving-picture show as 
often as this woman does is spending money and time 
and health foolishly. To spend two hours every night 
in the hot, close air of a moving-picture theatre is bad 
for anybody. 

"Now," continued Miss Emerson, "how many of you 
are willing to promise me not to go to one of these enter- 
tainments oftener than once a week?" 

Everybody promised, and perhaps this was the reason 
that on the next school banking day twenty dollars was 
added to the deposits already made. 



IV 
THE "MAKING-OVER" CLUB 

Mr. Sanborn had looked very grave when he came 
home to supper, hot and tired, the first night of June. 
And after supper, when Ellen and Herbert went out in 
the back yard to play a game, he quietly handed his wife 
a letter. This was from the company for which Mr. 
Sanborn worked, and said that, while they regretted 
having to do it, they had decided to run the shop on 
half-time for the next three months, and perhaps longer. 
Times were dull everywhere, and the iron shop was only 
one of many concerns that found it difficult to keep 
going. 

"Never mind, John," said Mrs. Sanborn to her hus- 
band. "The children and I will help you. As long as 
we can pay the rent and get a little something to eat 
we shall be all right. There are plenty of ways of saving 
money, even when there isn't much coming in." 

The next morning after breakfast, while Ellen was 
washing dishes and Herbert was drying them, Mrs. San- 
born explained about their father's bad news. 

29 



30 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Now I have a plan to propose/ 7 said Mrs. Sanborn 
cheerfully. "This will have to be a l making-over' year. 
There can be no new clothes, no new shoes unless abso- 
lutely necessary, no new furniture. I know that we can 
do this for father, and I want you both to think up all 
the ways in which we can help him." 

"Does that mean that I'll have to hire out as an er- 
rand boy this summer?" asked Herbert. 

Ellen looked puzzled and troubled. "Oh, mother, I 
wanted a new party dress this year. Mine is faded and 
dreadfully old-fashioned. Can't I have just one new 
dress?" 

Her mother only said: "That is something you must 
think over a little longer. What I want to know now is, 
will you and Herbert help father out? I am going to 
appoint you both a Committee on 'Making Over.' I 
want you to put on your thinking caps, and next Satur- 
day we will have a report." 

"That won't be half bad, will it, Helen?" exclaimed 
Herbert. "But I know I can think of more ways of 
saving than you can. Girls' heads are always full of 
plans about dresses and pianos and such things.". 

"Is that so?" said Ellen with some indignation. 

Ellen promised herself that she would be just as brave 
and helpful as Herbert, but she did want a new party 
dress. And she had hoped and hoped for a piano, so 



THE " MAKING-OVER " CLUB 31 

that she could take music lessons as Ella Ward and Mary 
Perkins and all the other girls did. 

Monday night after school; Mrs. Sanborn said: "I 
think it would help you in your reports if you should 
take paper and pencil, and make a careful inspection of 
the house. Ellen, why don't you spend an hour in the 
attic looking over the boxes of old hats and dresses and 
pieces? Herbert can inspect the cellar and the shed. 
I'm not going to make any more suggestions. Just use 
your eyes and your wits." 

When supper was ready Mrs. Sanborn had to call 
several times before she got any response from Ellen. 
At length she came down with rumpled hair and dusty 
face, looking quite excited. 

"I shan't tell anything, so you needn't ask/' she said 
as she looked at Herbert. 

"Nobody's going to. I've got enough on my mind 
as it is," replied her brother. 

Mr. Sanborn laughed at the signs of excitement on 
the two children's faces. "What's this all about?" he 
asked. 

"It's a secret!" Ellen and Herbert said, at the same 
time. 

It was difficult to get Ellen to bed that night; when 
she wasn't making trips up to the attic she was figuring 
or making sketches on paper. She not only explored 



32 STORIES OF THRIFT 

the attic, but got her mother's permission to go through 
all the clothes closets. 

When Saturday came both Herbert and Ellen wanted 
to make their report immediately after breakfast, but 
Mrs. Sanborn said: "Dishes first!" 

Just as the clock struck ten the committee seated 
themselves at the kitchen table, where Mrs. Sanborn 
was kneading bread. 

"Let Ellen make her report first," suggested Herbert. 
"If you don't, she won't listen to a word of mine." 

Ellen was too much in earnest even to reply to her 
brother's good-natured taunt. This is what she read 
from her paper: 

I have examined one attic and three clothes 
closets. I have found twenty-one things that can 
be made over or used in such a way as to save father 
money. These are the things: 

Three Pairs of Shoes. One pair needs new heels 
and ought to be thoroughly blacked, and then I can 
wear them to school. Another pair are men's shoes 
and might do for father to wear to work on rainy 
days to save his good ones. The other pair may 
fit Herbert; if they don't, perhaps the shoemaker 
would take them in payment for putting new heels 
onto the shoes that I can wear. 



THE " MAKING-OVER 77 CLUB 33 

Old Dotted-Muslin Curtains. These are long cur- 
tains, but the tops are torn and stained. When the 
tops are cut off, there will be enough good muslin 
left to make either a thin waist for me, or sash 
curtains for the dining-room. 

Three Old Striped Shirts of Father's. They are 
torn out around the neck, and the buttons are miss- 
ing, but I think mother could make them over for 
Herbert. 

Three White Cotton Skirts. These could be made 
over into petticoats for mother and me. I found a 
lot of embroidery in a pasteboard box, and we could 
use some of this for trimming. 

Almost Three Yards of Wide Sash Ribbon. This 
is blue with pink roses. It is badly mussed, but it 
can be washed and ironed, and will look almost as 
good as new. 

Here Herbert pounded the floor in applause. 

"Good work !" he said. "I don't believe you thought 
that up yourself." 

"Will the meeting come to order at once?" said Mrs. 
Sanborn. 

"Surely," said Herbert. "Go ahead, but wait until 
you hear me." 

"Well," said Ellen, "it is just because of this ribbon 



34 STORIES OF THRIFT 

that I shall not have to buy a new party dress. I am 
going to help mother dye my white muslin blue, and then 
make this blue and pink ribbon into a butterfly sash to 
wear at the back." 

Herbert gave a low whistle ; but made no other com- 
ment; and Ellen continued: 

Two Summer Hats and One Winter Hat. Besides 
these there are different flowers and pieces of velvet 
ribbon, and probably some of these could be used 
for trimming over. 

An Old Table-Cloth. This has a pretty vine pat- 
tern; and could be made into a square lunch-cloth. 
There would have to be a seam right through the 
middle; but that ought not to bother us. 

Two Partly Worn-out Sheets. When any of our 
pillow slips wear out, we can make new ones out 
of these. 

An Old Winter Coat of Father's, and Two Woollen 
Dresses that Were Mother's. I don't know just 
what could be done with these. Perhaps mother 
will suggest something later. 

Just here Herbert groaned. "I suppose I am in for a 
made-over winter coat. All I ask is that Ellen also have 
a made-over dress.' 7 



THE " MAKING-OVER " CLUB 35 

"Well/' said Ellen, "I've already made up my mind 
not to wear anything for a whole year that isn't made 
over. Esther Hapgood and I are going to see which can 
go the longer without having anything new." 

"Well, I never !" exclaimed Herbert. "I suppose you 
will have a ' Making-Over ' Club the next thing." 

"That wouldn't be a bad idea/' said Mrs. Sanborn. 
"Esther's father has been laid off on half-time, and I'm 
sure they are as poor as we — but finish your report, 
Ellen." 

Two Big Packing-Boxes Full of Pieces. These 
ought to be sorted out, some of them sold to the 
ragman, and the rest kept for use in mending or 
making guimpes. 

A Big Lamp with a Green-Paper Shade. Mary 
Cummings has lamps in her house. She says her 
mother thinks they are prettier than gaslights, and, 
anyway, oil is cheaper than gas. Why couldn't we 
use this in the sitting-room and save the gas? 

"Wouldn't save enough to pay," said Herbert. 

"I'm not so sure," said Mrs. Sanborn. "We will 
look into that. You have certainly made a good report, 
Ellen. Every ten cents that we can save will be a help, 
for ten cents will buy two pounds of sugar, and two 
pounds of sugar can be made to last us a week." 



36 STORIES OF THRIFT 

When Herbert's turn came at last, he rose with mock 
ceremony, bowed to his mother and Ellen, and said: 

My report is short and very important. I have 
examined the woodshed and the cellar, and this is 
what I find: 

In the cellar there is a lot of stuff that could be 
sold for old junk. I have put all this in the corner 
nearest the door, and this afternoon I am going to 
ask a junk-dealer to look at it and make us an offer. 

There are some packing-cases, soap-boxes, etc., 
which could be chopped up for kindling-wood. 
This would probably last us all summer, and save 
buying until fall. I will do the chopping. 

I don't know how this next idea will strike mother, 
but I think we could get along without ice this sum- 
mer. You see the east corner of the house is built 
right into a bank, and the same corner of the cellar 
is almost as cold as an ice-chest. We could rig up 
some boxes in this corner to keep the milk and but- 
ter and such things in. Of course, this would mean 
extra going up and down stairs, but we can all help. 

Herbert looked pointedly at Ellen, and continued: 

At the back of the shed I found a lot of cans of 
paint and some papers of seeds. I don't know what 



THE "MAKING-OVER" CLUB 37 

we can do with the paint, but I have a scheme for 
using the seeds. The other day in school the prin- 
cipal told us how thrifty the German people are. 
Many of them plant their whole yard to vegetables. 
And even if they have only a little strip at the side 
and back as we have, they make it into a garden. 

At recess I asked the principal if he thought I 
could make any money out of a garden in our yard. 
He told me to dig down under the turf and bring him 
a sample of the soil. I carried him some of the soil, 
and he had it tested to see if it was rich enough to 
grow vegetables without fertilizer. He said it was, 
and if I would start in at once to dig up and plant, 
he thought I could have a good garden this year. 

"Isn't it rather late to start a garden?" asked Mrs. 
Sanborn. 

"Not if I plant the right things, the principal said. 
Lettuce, winter carrots, and tomato-plants can be planted 
now." 

"I shall miss the green-grass yard," said Mrs. San- 
born with a sigh, "but I think your idea is a good one. 
Do you realize how much hard work it will mean, Her- 
bert?" 

"Yes, and Henry Wilkins and Bob Marshall are going 
to help me. You see, I shall help them, too." 



38 STORIES OF THRIFT 

" Oh, ho ! " said Ellen. " So you're forming a ' Making- 
Over' Club, too, are you? We girls are going to make 
over clothes, and you will make over yards. What a 
scheme!" 

Just then a knock at the kitchen door startled them 
all. Mrs. Sanborn opened it, and who should stand 
there but Mr. Green, the principal of the school that 
Herbert and Ellen attended! 

"I came to talk with Herbert about his garden," he 
said with a smile. 

"That is very good of you," said Mrs. Sanborn cor- 
dially. "Come right in. Ellen and Herbert are my 
Committee on Making Over, and they have just made 
their reports. You see, my husband is only working 
half-time now, and we must economize in every way 
possible." Mrs. Sanborn went on to explain about 
the reports, and the principal became greatly inter- 
ested. 

"You have given me an idea," he said. "Hard times 
have affected a lot of people this year, especially the 
families of our school. I think it would be a good thing 
if we could organize a school c Making-Over' Club. If 
I invite all the parents of our pupils to come to the 
school next Friday afternoon, will you come? And will 
you let me tell them about your plan ? " 

Mrs. Sanborn assented, and as Mr. Green and Her- 



THE " MAKING-OVER " CLUB 39 

bert went out to look over the yard, Ellen danced up 
and down with excitement. 

"Keep your thinking cap on, Ellen," said her mother, 
"and perhaps you will have some more helpful sugges- 
tions that we can give to Mr. Green." 



THE "MAKING-OVER" CLUB 

(Continued) 

Before Friday came Mr. Green had called on Mrs. 
Sanborn several times to talk over plans. Tired and 
somewhat discouraged though he was ; Mr. Sanborn be- 
came greatly interested also. 

"Seems almost like celebrating some good news," he 
said. "You wouldn't think to see the goings on that 
my pay envelope was to be cut in two, would you ? " 

"No," his wife answered thoughtfully; "but, as Mr. 
Green said, I believe that we can have a good time all 
summer long, and the children will learn many valuable 
lessons that might never be taught them in school." 

"Perhaps you are right. At the shop today John 
Estabrook was saying that being poor might be just 
what our children needed to make them ambitious. 
Almost every successful man in this country was once 
a poor boy, and had to make his way himself." Mr. 
Sanborn was silent a minute. 

"Why, look at Joel Hammond, who lives up on Fair- 
view Hill," he continued. "His mother was doing 

40 



THE "MAKING-OVER" CLUB 41 

washings twenty years ago. He had to leave school and 
get to work when he was fourteen. I don't know just 
what he did at first, but for a time he was earning six 
dollars a week in an automobile repair-shop, helping 
wash machines and doing odd jobs. He got interested, 
used to study nights, and after a while they let him run 
a car. 

"Then he was chauffeur for a year or two, but he 
liked best to fuss over the insides of the cars, so he took 
a repairer's job, and by the time he was twenty was earn- 
ing twenty-five dollars a week. They say he could take 
any car to pieces and put it together again. He was 
always staying around at night long after the other men 
had gone home, and one day he invented some part or 
other, and that is how he became rich. Herbert may 
be a rich man yet, and take us sightseeing in a big auto- 
mobile. How should you like that?" And Mr. San- 
born turned to his wife with a smile. 

"Very much," answered his wife. "But I shall be 
satisfied if our children learn how to earn their own 
living and to be wholesome and happy. People can be 
happy if they are not rich." 

"Hello, father!" piped up a voice from the open 
window. "How do you like the looks of my farm? 
You didn't think that parsnips, peas, carrots, and po- 
tatoes could grow in your side yard, did you?" 



42 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"I certainly didn't; but when a boy of thirteen makes 
up his mind to do a thing he can accomplish wonders. 
I agree to pick off all the potato-bugs.' ' 

" You're too late, father/' said Herbert regretfully. 
"Mr. Green has organized all the boys on these three 
streets into a 'Home-Garden' Club. Each boy is to 
have a yard garden, and we are going to help each other. 
The potato-bug boy has already been chosen. This boy 
will work his own garden mostly, but he will also keep 
watch of the potato-vines in all the gardens." 

"Well, that sounds like business," his father remarked, 
"but even so, I shouldn't wonder if he'd accept a little 
help on the potato-bugs. You bring him round, and 
I'll tell him he can look on me as an assistant. But ex- 
plain more about this club. It sounds good." 

"There isn't much to tell, except that each boy is 
responsible for his own garden. In addition, each one 
of us is what Mr. Green called a specialist on some one 
thing. Elmer Harrison is to be a specialist on potato- 
bugs. I am to be one on sprays, and another boy will 
find out all he can about fertilizers. Frederick Emery is 
the specialist on selling. You see, if I raise more potatoes 
than we need at home, I shall tell Frederick, and he will 
see if any of the other boys want to swap something with 
me. If he can't arrange a trade of that kind, then he 
will try to sell them for me. I shan't have to pay him, 



THE " MAKING-OVER " CLUB 43 

because he is doing this for the good of the club. I 
help him by looking at his garden every little while and 
telling him when any of his plants need to be sprayed 
with powder or liquid. I am finding out about this 
from the seed store, and from a book that we have at 
school. Of course, I can sell my vegetables myself if 
I want to. Frederick is to help out only when we need 
him." 

"Doesn't look as if you would have much time for 
baseball/' Mr. Sanborn said mischievously. 

A little cloud passed over Herbert's face. "Perhaps 
not," he said, "but I guess we'll have great bunches of 
muscle for football in September." And Mr. Sanborn 
agreed. 

"Oh, I forgot to tell you about watering," said Her- 
bert. "If we don't have rain enough our gardens may 
suffer for water, and only two of the boys have garden 
hose. Well, our club is going to rent these two pieces 
of hose, and the hose committee, Evans and Wood, will 
carry them around to the different houses as they are 
needed." 

"Well," said Mr. Sanborn as he turned away, "either 
you are an enterprising lot of boys, or else you have an 
enterprising principal." 

"Perhaps it is both," the boy answered quickly. 

The schoolhouse meeting on Friday was a great sue- 



44 STORIES OF THRIFT 

cess. Mr. Green explained about the Home-Garden 
Club that had been formed on three streets, and said 
that he should be glad to assist in forming others. The 
idea in every case was to help out the home by grow- 
ing vegetables, so that fewer things would have to be 
bought at the stores. The vegetables and plants that he 
recommended were lettuce, beets, parsnips, carrots, 
peas, beans, and potatoes. Of course, one boy could not 
grow all these, but no garden, Mr. Green said, was too 
small for at least two vegetables. He also advised every- 
body to plant rhubarb roots, and to start a Concord 
grape-vine, since both of these grow rapidly and on 
almost any soil. 

Rhubarb can be made into many appetizing dishes 
and is easily canned for winter use. Grapes are valua- 
ble both as a food and as a relish. They can be made 
into jelly, or juice, or preserves. In any of these forms 
they can be sold at good prices. The principal told of 
one girl who had earned all the money for her first year 
at college by making and selling grape juice, grape jelly, 
and apple jelly. 

Mr. Green also explained about Mrs. Sanborn's 
" making-over" scheme, and urged everybody to try it. 
He promised to help any boy or any mother in every 
way possible. 

"lam perfectly sure," he said, "that no boy or girl 



THE " MAKING-OVER" CLUB 45 

who has really learned how to work will ever be very- 
poor. I should not hesitate to give the highest rec- 
ommendation to any boy who this summer plants 
and takes care of his own garden, and in the fall 
has a good crop, which he either sells or stores for 
'lis own use. 

"I can say the same thing about any girl who learns 
to cook and to sew," continued the principal. "It is, 
of course, necessary for you boys and girls to learn all 
that you can of arithmetic, history, and geography. 
But if, in addition to these, you do not also learn how to 
work, you may not be able to earn your own living when 
you are out of school." 

As Mr. Green said this, some of the audience looked 
ill at ease. Perhaps the boys were remembering the 
coal and wood that they hated to bring up from the cel- 
lar, and the girls were thinking of the hot kitchens and 
the dirty dishes. . Almost as if he had read their thoughts, 
the principal continued: 

"Some girls seem to think that washing dishes is some- 
thing that anybody can do without taking pains. But 
I'm going to tell you what will surprise you. Last 
September a wealthy woman, who has a very beautiful 
house, came to my office at the school and asked me to 
recommend a girl to come to her house every evening 
except Sunday to do the dinner dishes. That would be 



46 STORIES OF THRIFT 

about an hour's work each day. I told her there were 
at least a dozen girls that I could recommend. 

"'Yes/ she said, 'but are you sure they really know 
how to wash fine china and glass and silver? All my 
china is expensive, and only one who is careful can be 
trusted with it. I have tried six different girls this last 
year. All of them said they could do the work, but not 
one was satisfactory.' 

"At first/' said Mr. Green, "I could hardly believe 
that any girl could not wash dishes acceptably. But 
that night I asked my wife about it, and she agreed that 
few girls knew how to wash and wipe dishes so that they 
were clean and shiny, and to handle them without mak- 
ing nicks or cracks. And as for silver, it seems that 
most girls know very little about keeping it bright and 
clean. 

"Well, after a time I did find a girl who pleased the 
woman, and now she is earning two dollars a week work- 
ing one hour a day at dish-washing. She not only knows 
how to wash the dishes, but she can clean the dish-pans 
and the sink, and leave the dish-cloth and the wiping 
towels clean and sweet. 

"Even if you have cheap dishes, common glass, and 
plated silver at home, there is no reason why you should 
not learn how to care for them properly. Even a five- 
cent coffee-cup should not be nicked, and boiling-hot 



THE " MAKING-OVER" CLUB 47 

water ought not to be turned over the plainest of white 
crockery plates, for it may crackle them. And wouldn't 
you rather drink water out of a clear, shining glass than 
out of one that is dull and covered with lint?" 

Here Mr. Green said that his time was up, but that 
Miss Elwell, one of his teachers, would meet in Room 
10 any of the girls and their mothers who wanted to form 
a summer " Making-Over" Club. This club would give 
most of its time to making over clothes, but it might 
later take up other experiments, such as making jellies, 
canning rhubarb, drying apples, and the like. 

" Goody, goody, goody!" whispered Ellen to her 
mother. "Miss Elwell is our prettiest teacher, and she 
has be-u-tiful dresses. One of the girls says she is 
rich." 

"Well, that certainly isn't true, Ellen," said her 
mother. "Mr. Green himself told me that Miss Elwell 
is quite poor. She only gets seven hundred dollars a 
year, and while that may seem to you like a good deal 
of money, she has little to spend on herself because 
she helps support a mother and an invalid brother. 
What should you say, Ellen, if I told you that Miss 
Elwell makes all her own dresses and trims her own 
hats?" 

"Why, mother!" Ellen gasped. "She couldn't. She 
has lovely things. Today in school she had on a sky- 



48 STORIES OF THRIFT 

blue dress that just matched her eyes, and she looked 
so sweet that I wanted to hug her." 

"Miss Elwell is certainly charming/' replied her 
mother, "but she certainly does make all her own clothes. 
That is why Mr. Green has asked her to take charge of 
the ' Making-Over' Club." 

During the summer that followed there were making- 
over committees in more than twenty homes. With 
Miss Elwell to show them how, the girls and their mothers 
made from old dresses and pieces enough clothes for the 
coming fall and winter. It was wonderful how a ruffle 
here and a fold there could be made to cover up worn 
and faded spots. 

Miss Elwell helped each girl and each mother to cut 
out a simple skirt and waist pattern that fitted exactly. 
From such a pattern a dress could easily be cut. The 
idea was to start with the simple-model pattern, and 
then with tucks, yokes, trimmings,. etc., to add touches 
that made each dress different from the others. As Mrs. 
Sanborn said, when a girl could make one style of dress 
well, it was a simple matter for her to learn to make 
others. So they all practised making one dress that 
would both fit well and look well. 

Miss Elwell was very willing to tell the girls the secrets 
of her own pretty clothes. She said she had learned 
that crepes were among the most desirable dress goods 



THE "MAKING-OVER" CLUB 49 

to buy. She used cotton crepes for her summer dresses, 
and woollen crepes for her winter ones. A good crepe 
can be bought for twenty-five cents a yard, and some- 
times for fifteen cents. If it is shrunk well before being 
made up, it will give no trouble. All crepes wash easily, 
and require no starching and little ironing. There is 
something dainty and graceful about these goods which 
makes them especially suitable for summer wear, Miss 
Elwell thought. And even for winter, she said she had 
found that dark blue or dark brown wool crepes were 
satisfactory. These she washed either in warm water 
or in naphtha. 

One advantage in using crepes, she explained, was the 
time saved in washing and ironing; they also wore better. 
Dress goods which have to be heavily starched and 
ironed each time that they are washed, wear out much 
sooner than goods which can be simply cleansed with 
warm water and good soap, and do not require strong 
powders and fluids to remove the dirt. 

At the end of the summer the entire Sanborn family 
agreed that they never had had a pleasanter time. They 
not only managed to live on Mr. Sanborn's half-pay, 
but they saved a few dollars to put in the savings-bank. 
They voted the " Making-Over" Committee a great suc- 
cess, and decided that it ought to serve whether the shop 
ran on full time or half-time. 



50 STORIES OF THRIFT 

The first Friday of the fall term each teacher in the 
school spent the whole afternoon hearing reports from 
the members of the different Making-Over and Home- 
Garden Clubs, and the principal congratulated them on 
their good work in a highly complimentary speech. 



VI 
WISE SPENDING 

The chief industry of Mansfield, a small thriving 
town, was the making of nails, in which were employed 
nearly two thousand men and boys. One day the news 
was spread about that the owner of the nail factory, 
Alfred Heywood, had bought the big brick house on Em- 
erson Hill, and intended to move into town right away. 
The boys and girls were on tiptoe with excitement, for it 
was said that Mr. Heywood had two sons, one fourteen 
and the other sixteen years old, and a daughter twelve 
years old. 

"I suppose/' said one, "the Heywood girl will have 
to go to our school even if she is rich, because it is the 
only one in town." 

"No, she won't," said another. "Rich girls have 
tutors or governesses. It is absurd to suppose she will 
come to a common school like ours." 

Remarks of this kind were heard on every side. One 
story about the boys was that each of them had an auto- 
mobile of his own. One girl insisted that the family 
had ten servants, not including a coachman and a chauf- 

51 



52 STORIES OF THRIFT 

feur. When the new family finally arrived, the public 
school had been in session three weeks. On the follow- 
ing Monday most of the pupils were at school earlier 
than usual, so as to be sure not to miss seeing the new- 
comers if they appeared. 

And they were not disappointed, for at eight-thirty 
Mr. Heywood himself, the two boys, and the girl ar- 
rived. The pupils had almost to rub their eyes to believe 
what they saw, for the Heywoods came on foot without 
display of any kind. 

"Huh," said Margaret Armstrong, "her dress isn't 
as good as mine." 

"No," answered her chum; "and her hat hasn't a 
single flower on it." 

"Well, I don't believe they're so rich after all," said 
another girl. 

One of the teachers who happened to be passing just 
then overheard the last two remarks and stopped to 
say: "Do you want me to tell you something, girls? 
Don't you know that the people who are really worth 
while are always modest and careful in their dress? 
They never make a foolish display of anything, how- 
ever "rich they may be. And it would be especially 
foolish to wear expensive, showy clothes to school." 

These words of the teacher sobered the girls some- 
what, and Margaret looked a little ashamed, for she 



WISE SPENDING 53 

had worn her best clothes to school that day just because 
she was afraid of feeling ill-dressed beside the Heywood 
girl. 

The older Heywood boy, James, entered the gradu- 
ating class of the high school, and Edgar, the younger 
one, fitted into the second-year class. Mabel Heywood 
was placed in the seventh grade and, to the great delight 
of Margaret, was assigned a seat just across the aisle 
from hers. Margaret had a good chance to observe the 
newcomer. Her dress was a brown gingham of a soft, 
pretty shade, but much darker than Margaret thought 
suitable for the daughter of a rich man. It was simply 
made with a tucked yoke. Her hair ribbon, brown to 
match the dress, was neither the heavy watered silk nor 
the satin that Margaret admired so much — it was plain, 
washable silk. In spite of the ordinary appearance of 
Mabel's clothes, Margaret decided that she should like 
the girl. She noticed that her finger-nails were clean, 
shining, and curved, and that she wore no rings or jew- 
elry of any kind. Margaret looked around the room at 
the other pupils, but could not see another girl who did 
not wear a fancy pin or ring or bracelet of some kind. 
Even Annie Toley, whose father was dead and whose 
mother went out cleaning by the day, wore a coral pin 
and a big gold bracelet. 

At recess time, on the boys' side of the school, a little 



54 STORIES OF THRIFT 

crowd gathered around James Heywood, urging him to 
come to a meeting of the football team the next Satur- 
day afternoon. 

"I'm sorry, but I can't/' he said. "You see I'm 
going to work in the factory Saturdays." 

"Oh, come now, do you expect us to believe that?" 
asked one of the boys bluntly. 

"That's honest. I'm starting in this year to learn 
father's business. That's the chief reason why we 
moved here. I can play football or anything else school 
days after school, but not on Saturdays." 

In another part of the school yard Margaret was 
talking with Mabel. 

"Which kind of hair ribbons do you like best — wa- 
tered silk or satin?" Margaret asked, in an attempt 
to get acquainted. 

"Why, I never thought. I don't believe I ever had 
a satin one. The one I have on is a kind of silk that 
washes and irons. Mother says these last longer than 
any other kind. But yours is very pretty," she added 
quickly. 

During the weeks that followed, there were a good 
many surprises in the town. Naturally the interest of 
most of the townspeople centred in the new factory 
owner's family, but as the weeks went by it became 
evident that they lived very much as other people did. 



WISE SPENDING 55 

Mr. Heywood had a fine large automobile, but he kept 
no regular chauffeur. The one man that he employed 
about the house could run the machine when necessary, 
and so could James, the older Heywood boy. It was he 
and his brother Edgar who had to wash the car and keep 
it clean. Many a time Edgar had to refuse an invita- 
tion to some Saturday frolic with the other boys because 
the car needed to be cleaned, and as the boys trooped 
past his house he would answer their call by tossing his 
sponge into the air. 

Before Thanksgiving time half the boys in town were 
begging their fathers to let them raise chickens in then- 
back yards. The reason given every time was : "Edgar 
Heywood does it to earn money." 

As soon as the Heywoods were settled in their new 
home Edgar bought ten hens with a part of his monthly 
spending-money. He also bought the lumber for the 
chicken-house out of his allowance, and built it himself 
with a little help from the chauffeur. Mr. Heywood 
had permitted his son to try the chicken experiment on 
the condition that he take the whole care of the chickens, 
and keep them from running wild. So, in addition to 
a hen-house, Edgar had to fence in a run for the chick- 
ens. He found that this would take two dollars more 
than he had in his tin box, so he asked his father to 
help him out. 



56 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Why, I thought this was your affair, Edgar," Mr. 
Heywood said. "Do you want me to buy you out and 
run the chicken-yard myself?" 

"No, of course not," Edgar answered. "All I want 
is a little help." 

"Oh, I see, you want a loan of two dollars. Yes, 
I'll lend you the money. For how long do you want 
it?" 

Edgar thought a moment. "Two months, I guess. 
I shall need all my allowance this month to buy grain 
for the hens." 

"All right," said his father. "Write out a promis- 
sory note and give it to me after supper, and I will have 
the money ready for you." 

Edgar was up in his workroom in the attic of the barn 
making out this note when two of the schoolboys came 
in to see him. 

"I'm in debt. No sodas this month," were the words 
with which he greeted them. And he held up the slip of 
paper on which he had written: 

October 7, 1915. 
Two months from date I promise to pay my father, 
Alfred Heywood, tw T o dollars and twenty-five cents 
(the twenty-five cents being interest). 

Edgar Heywood. 



WISE SPENDING 57 

"You don't mean that your father wouldn't give you 
any money to help you out?" asked one of the boys in 
astonishment. 

"Well, this is business, you see. I'm buying the hens 
to make money, and it wouldn't be real business if I 
used somebody else's money. Of course, if I borrow 
money that is different." 

The boys looked unconvinced, and Edgar continued, 
eager to justify his father. 

"Father says no boy ever grew up into a successful 
business man unless he learned business habits. So I 
have to keep account of every cent I spend both for fun 
and for business. When I get short of money, if it is 
absolutely necessary, I borrow from father or mother 
or James. And every time I borrow I write out a prom- 
issory note, just as if I were a real business man bor- 
rowing money from a bank." 

"Yes," said one of the boys, "but suppose that at 
the end of two months you couldn't pay, what then?" 

"I always have paid, but if when the time was almost 
up I found that I wasn't going to have the money, I 
should try to do some extra work to earn it, or if I 
couldn't do that, I should ask father to extend the note 
for a few weeks." 

"Would he do that?" asked one of his questioners. 

"Yes, if I had a good reason for not having the money. 



58 STORIES OF THRIFT 

But if I had bought a new bat or a new pair of skates 
after he lent me the money, he probably wouldn't renew 
the note." 

"But what could he do? If you didn't have the 
money, you couldn't give it to him ; could you?" 

"No, but father would expect me to sell enough of 
my hens to make up two dollars and twenty-five cents. 
Otherwise I should lose my credit, as father calls it. 
He says that the only way to succeed in business is 
always to keep your promises. If I didn't keep my 
promise to pay that two dollars and a quarter at just such 
a date, father wouldn't trust me another time. And I 
would rather be trusted by father than by any other 
man I know." 

"That sounds all right to me, Edgar," said one of 
his visitors, "but what about that twenty-five cents? 
Isn't that pretty high interest? If you put two dollars 
in a savings-bank at four per cent interest you would 
only get eight cents interest for a whole year, and two 
months' interest would only amount to six and three- 
quarter cents." 

"Father says he always has to pay more interest on 
a short-time loan than on a long one, and then you see 
I have given him no security. The credit of a bank is 
almost always good, but with a man or a boy all kinds 
of things may happen to prevent him from paying back 



WISE SPENDING 59 

the money that he has borrowed. So a person usually 
has to pay more interest than a bank would, because the 
risk is greater." 

Here Edgar's face broke into a smile. 

"Once in a while father borrows from me/' he said. 
"Last summer he took me to Cincinnati one day on a 
business trip. We went on a mileage ticket, but when 
we reached the city father discovered that he hadn't a 
cent with him. He thought we should have to telegraph 
home for some money, but I had five dollars with me 
that I was going to use in buying some padded football 
trousers. I told father he could borrow that if it was 
enough, and I'd wait for the trousers. 

"He offered to give me a note for the money, and pay 
me a dollar interest. But I wouldn't let him do that. 
I didn't think it was honorable to take advantage of 
him. Father said I was right; a person ought never to 
take advantage of another person's trouble. He paid 
me back by doing me a favor. We went to the store, 
picked out the trousers, and ordered them sent home 
C. 0. D., in care of father." 

"What are you going to do with the money that you 
make on your hens?" asked one of the boys. 

"Just save it. Put it in the bank until I need it for 
something. I've got two hundred dollars in the bank 
now that I earned myself," he said proudly. 



60 STORIES OF THRIFT 

In spite of the fact that Edgar and James Heywood 
did not have so much time for football, baseball, fishing, 
and the like, as most of the other boys, they soon became 
very popular. It was not unusual to hear a boy say: 
"This is the way Edgar does/' or, "I'm going to ask 
James about that." 

Mabel, too, became a favorite with the girls of her 
own age. She was always good-natured and ready for 
a good time, and never acted superior or critical. One 
day she asked five of her classmates that she knew best 
to come to her house to supper the next evening. This 
was the first time that any of the girls had been invited 
into the "big house" since the Heywoods had moved in. 

Margaret was all in a flutter, and her mother spent 
most of the evening washing and ironing her best white 
skirt and dress. She did up her hair in twelve crimpers 
instead of four, as usual. The next evening the five 
girls, all in white dresses and gay ribbons, went in great 
eagerness to the house on the hill. Mrs. Heywood and 
Mabel met them in the hall, and Mabel took them up 
into her room to leave their coats and hats. 

Margaret thought Mabel would probably change her 
dress while they waited for her, but it was soon evident 
that she was already dressed for the evening. She had 
on a dark-blue challis, which was sprinkled over with 
tiny dark-red rosebuds, and the ribbon in her hair 



WISE SPENDING 61 

matched the rosebuds. Her hair was neatly braided, 
but did not look any more crimped than it was every 
day at school. 

After supper when the girls were up-stairs in Mabel's 
room looking over some pictures, they got to talking 
about dress. " Don't you like white dresses?" Mar- 
garet asked Mabel. 

"Yes," answered Mabel, "but mother won't let me 
wear white starched dresses much. It is so hard to 
keep them looking well, and in hot weather it takes so 
much time and strength to iron them." 

"But don't you have a maid to iron them for you?" 
insisted Margaret. 

"We have only one maid, and if she had to iron many 
starched clothes she wouldn't have time for much else. 
Mother says I may have as many white dresses as I 
am willing to iron myself. So I have one white dotted 
muslin. Most of my other thin dresses are chain's, or 
crepe, or seersucker, and don't need starching." 

Mabel, seeing that it would please the girls, brought 
out from her closet her summer dresses, and showed them 
to her visitors. Then they went down into the big living- 
room and played games until it was time to go home. 

When Margaret told her mother about her good time, 
she added: "Everything is so plain ! Why, they haven't 
as many vases as we have !" 



62 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Perhaps we have too many. I think so every time 
I dust them/' her mother said. "I was reading last 
night that rich people often know how to live cheaper 
and save themselves more work than poor people do. 
And if a family like the Heywoods can have plainly fur- 
nished rooms, and raise hens, and wear clothes that wash 
easily, I don't see why we can't. " 

And so they could, and did, and so may any sensible 
family. 



VII 
SPARE TIME 

One December day, not many years ago, a fourteen- 
year old boy stood on the rude wooden platform of the 
railroad station at Banks, Alabama. He looked excited 
and a little awed, for men, women, and children had 
come to see him off. And when the train pulled in the 
boys hurrahed, and the men shook hands with him and 
wished him a successful trip. His father waved his hat 
from his seat in the farm wagon and turned the horse 
toward home. 

This boy was a Corn Club prize-winner, and was 
taking the most eventful trip of his life. He was going 
to Washington to see the Capitol of the nation, and also 
to call on the Secretary of Agriculture and the President. 
When he reached Washington he was met by a govern- 
ment official and taken to a big hotel, with elevators, 
soft carpets, and a dining-room with hundreds of tables. 
At the hotel his guide introduced him to ten other boys 
of about his age, who also had come from distant towns. 

These eleven boys spent seven busy days sightseeing 

in and about Washington. They had a trip down the 
63 



64 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Potomac to Mount Vernon; they were shown the gov- 
ernment buildings and other objects of interest. They 
were received at the White House by the President, 
and were given special cards of admission to the Senate 
and the House of Representatives. When they visited 
Congress they were introduced to the senators and rep- 
resentatives from their own States, who talked with 
them as if they were grown men. 

The boys accepted an invitation to meet the Com- 
mittee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, 
and for two hours the busy statesmen talked earnestly 
with them. A stenographer took down every word that 
they said, and all this was later printed. The boys also 
made a visit to the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, 
where they were received with great courtesy, and had 
their photographs taken. The Secretary told them that 
the whole country was amazed to learn what schoolboys 
under sixteen years of age could do. 

And what were the wonderful things these boys had 
done? They had not fought in battle, nor had they 
saved anybody's life. They were merely Corn Club 
prize-winners. Each of them had raised an acre of corn. 
In all the Southern States schoolboys had been organ- 
ized into clubs, each boy promising to raise an acre of 
corn, and to do all the work of planting, harvesting, and 
selling himself. In addition to the first prize of a trip 



SPARE TIME 65 

to Washington, there were smaller prizes of money, 
farm animals, and tools, books on agriculture, watches, 
clothes, and the like. 

The fact that ten country boys, instead of spending 
their spare time fishing and hunting, had used it to raise 
an acre of corn is not in itself wonderful. But in addi- 
tion to the eleven prize-winners who visited Washington, 
46,225 other boys also raised an acre of corn each. This 
means that in one year the Southern States, through 
these boys, raised nearly 50,000 more acres of corn than 
ever before. Counting 150 bushels to an acre, and $1.00 
the net price per bushel, the value of the boys' corn 
crop was about $7,000,000. It is no wonder, then, that 
congressmen were interested in boys who could actually 
earn millions of dollars a year in spare time. 

The whole world has been astonished at what the 
Corn Club boys have been able to do. They keep up 
their school work and home chores just as they always 
have; raising corn is only an extra task. Many boys 
have had better and larger crops than their fathers. 
One of the prize-winners walked three miles to school, 
but in spite of the fact that he did not have so much 
time for farm work as some of the other boys, he had a 
prize acre. Of course, much of the work can be done 
during the summer vacation, but the hardest part — 
ploughing and planting — comes during the school time. 



66 STORIES OF THRIFT 

The Corn Club boys are scientific farmers. When a 
boy wants to join a club he notifies his teacher, and either 
the teacher or some other school official enrolls him in 
the nearest organization. His name is sent to both the 
State and the national department of agriculture, and he 
receives full instructions as to what to do. Of course, 
he has to agree to raise his crop according to the same 
rules that the other boys are observing, or he could not 
try for the prizes. But he is glad to do this. An ambi- 
tious boy is always eager to do things the right way. 

The girls on the farm, like the boys, are now using 
their spare time to save and earn money. They have 
formed tomato clubs, canning clubs, and the like. These 
are the requirements for membership in a tomato club: 

1. The girl must not be less than ten nor more than 
eighteen years old. 

2. She must plant one-tenth of an acre of land. 

3. She must follow carefully the directions sent her 
by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

4. She must plan her own crop and do her own 
work. Heavy work may be hired, but the timemust 
be charged. 

5. When she counts up her expenses she must use the 
same prices as the other club members: one dollar for 
the rent of the land; ten cents an hour for assistance; 
two dollars a ton for manure. 



SPARE TIME 67 

6. Her garden and the crop must be carefully mea- 
sured by two persons who are not her relatives. 

Each girl is supposed not to sell her tomatoes unless 
she can get a good price for them. If the market price 
is low when her tomatoes are ready for sale, she cans 
them for winter use — either to sell or to eat at home. 
It is considered a waste of time and money to sell a good 
article at too low a price. Thus the club teaches the 
girls to be good business women and to value even their 
spare time. 

This is the account of one Tomato Club girl: 



PAID 

Rent of land $1 .00 

Planting 50 

Manure and fertilizer 3 . 00 

Cultivation 1 .00 

Gathering 1 . 50 

Cans and canning outfit 8 . 27 

Cost of canning 4 . 50 

Total expense $19 . 77 



RECEIVED 

Cash sales of fresh vegetables $8 . 00 

Cash sales of canned goods 25 . 00 

Value of vegetables used at home 10 . 00 

Total receipts $43 .00 

Less expenses 19 . 77 

Net profit $23.23 



68 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Some girls have done still better, as the following net 
profits of different members show: $78.37, $60.51, $67.53, 
$67.73, $74.80. 

The club members have had such unusual success that 
many girls who live in districts where there are no clubs 
have raised tomatoes by themselves. 

Home-canned tomatoes are usually purer and better 
in every way than those canned in large factories. A 
good supply of these for winter use can be made a source 
of pleasure to any family. An appetizing supper dish 
for cold winter nights is tomato toast and hot cocoa 
made with milk. A whole family can make a meal on 
these two things. The tomato toast is made from thick, 
even slices of bread, toasted brown and well buttered, 
with the hot tomato turned over them. 

Many kinds of nourishing soups are made from home- 
canned tomatoes. Beef soup is much improved by the 
addition of a cupful of tomato to a quart of the broth. 
At a girls' summer camp, where only the most healthful, 
nourishing food is served, twice a week the supper con- 
sists of tomato bisque, cream of tartar biscuit, cold apple 
sauce, and milk. This tomato soup is delicious and nour- 
ishing. The canned tomatoes are strained, and to a 
quart of the strained hot juice is added a pinch of soda 
and a quart of hot milk. The milk is poured into the 
juice slowly. After the two are stirred together they 



SPARE TIME 69 

must not be allowed to boil, or the acid of the tomato 
will curdle the milk. The mixture is peppered and 
salted as desired. 

Another simple tomato dish is scalloped tomatoes. 
This is made of tomato and dried bread crumbs, sweet- 
ened, salted, and buttered — if butter is not too expen- 
sive — and baked in the oven. A tomato omelet is a 
plain omelet with hot tomato folded in. Every house- 
keeper knows many other inexpensive and wholesome 
dishes that can be made with canned tomatoes. There- 
fore, any girl may be sure that her work will be appre- 
ciated and will actually save her family money. 

During the late summer and the fall there are berries 
and fruits that can be bought by the bushel and canned 
in spare time. The chief expense is for the fruit and the 
sugar, but some things, like blueberries, are best when 
they are only moderately sweet. Most families like 
pies and shortcakes made with raspberries, blueberries, 
etc. One large family, in which there are four hearty 
boys, often makes its evening meal of soup of some kind, 
blueberry shortcake, and milk. 

Any girl who is willing to work can find some way of 
using her spare time to help out the preserve closet. 

A noted man has said: "If I know what a boy does 
in his spare time, I can tell you what kind of man he 
will be/' This statement was meant to include girls 



70 STORIES OF THRIFT 

also. And surely the Corn Club boys and the Tomato 
Club girls will grow up into thrifty, successful men and 
women. 

A woman once visited a large city school; and as the 
principal took her into one room he said: "Do you see 
that girl in the fourth seat of the third row? She is 
going to make a capable woman, and if she goes into 
business, she will be worth a great deal of money to 
somebody. " 

"How do you know?" asked the woman in surprise. 
"There are many other children who look much brighter 
than she." 

"Yes, there are a dozen pupils in this room that are 
quicker to learn than she, and can usually make a better 
recitation. But Ellen is almost the only girl in the school 
who wastes no time in studying her lessons, and who 
makes good use of her spare time." 

"Spare time?" interrupted the visitor. "I didn't 
know that you let your pupils have any spare time in 
school. I thought the teachers were supposed to keep 
their classes busy every minute." 

"No teacher can possibly see that forty different per- 
sons are busy all the time," replied the principal. "Sup- 
pose, for example, that this is the hour when the A 
division is studying history, and the B division is reciting 
arithmetic. Ellen is a hard worker, and she may finish 



SPARE TIME 71 

her history lesson ten minutes before the period is up. 
Instead of doing nothing; or scribbling or fooling, Ellen 
turns at once to something that is worth while. She never 
wastes a minute. I'm not sure, but I think she is doing 
some spare-time work now/' and the principal looked at 
his watch. " Follow me and we will walk through the 
aisles to see the pupils' desk-work. Notice particularly 
what Ellen is doing." 

A good many pupils fidgeted nervously and pretended 
to be studying industriously as the visitor and the prin- 
cipal passed. Ellen, however, seemed too busy even to 
look up, and gave a little start when the principal spoke. 

"What are you doing, Ellen?" he asked with an in- 
terested smile. 

"I'm just making up some pass-in books," she said. 
"I always make them up ahead." 

"Won't you explain to this friend of mine what a 
pass-in book is?'" the principal asked. 

"Why," said Ellen, "all our written work has to be 
handed in on paper five inches wide and eight inches 
long, with the sheets fastened together in some way. 
So I make little books by folding large sheets, and sewing 
them with white thread. Then they are ready for use. 
I now have enough made to last until next Friday." 

"What do you do with that red ink?" asked the 
visitor. 



72 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Oh," said Ellen, a little embarrassed, "I don't al- 
ways use that. But when I have time, I like to make a 
fancy border for the first page of the book." And she 
opened her desk and took up a booklet on which in 
black and red inks she had drawn a neat scroll border 
to enclose her name, grade, date, and the title of the 
paper. 

When they left the room the principal said: "Any 
girl who has the habit of using her spare time to such 
good advantage will make a good business woman." 

"But surely you don't believe in girls and boys work- 
ing every minute?" 

"No, indeed. In one of the grades I have a boy, 
Harold Smith, who, like Ellen, knows how to use his 
spare minutes. Much of his time he spends playing foot- 
ball and baseball. While he plays, he plays hard. Why, 
half the boys in the playground are wasting play time, 
just as inside here they are wasting study time. Watch 
a crowd at recess. How many of them are playing with 
a zest? Very few. They run around a few minutes, 
and then get in a corner and talk or look on. I believe 
that it is wrong to waste pleasure time and play time as 
well as to waste work time. 

"In school Harold is busy every minute. If there is 
a window to be fixed, or an errand to do, Harold always 
has time to do it without spoiling his lessons. I asked 



SPARE TIME 73 

his mother what he did with himself at home, and she 
said: 'He never wastes a minute. When he isn't play- 
ing with the boys or working in the yard, he is reading. 
He certainly gets pleasure out of everything. '" 

If we always do earnestly and eagerly whatever we 
have to do, whether it is work or play, we shall be happier 
and more successful than those who let many of their 
minutes go to waste. 



VIII 
ONE WAY OUT 

The most tumbled-down farm on the Stony Brook 
road was the Currier place. Since Silas Currier had 
been sick with pneumonia, two years before, every- 
thing had gone wrong. He had been slow in gaining 
strength, and could do only about half the work of an 
able-bodied farmer. And, worst of all, he was the only 
man on the place. His wife and the three children did 
the best they could, but the oldest boy, John, was only 
fourteen, and it seemed to take all their time to attend 
to the housework, look after the hens, and make the 
butter. The neighbors had begun to say: "Poor Lucy 
[Mrs. Currier] ! It's such a pity she had to go and marry 
a good-for-nothing man. She used to be a smart girl." 

But one day something happened. When the five- 
o'clock stage rumbled down the road, instead of passing, 
as it usually did, it stopped and waited while a stout, 
middle-aged man came to the door. Mrs. Currier an- 
swered the knock, and to the stranger's "Can you take 
me in for the night? I want to look over some timber 

74 



ONE WAY OUT 75 

in this section/' she said: "If you will put up with what 
we have, you are welcome. " 

The Currier farm, while on a main road, was twelve 
miles from a railroad station, so that, while hundreds of 
automobiles passed the house every week, a visitor was 
a rare occurrence. It was, therefore, not strange that 
the whole household should be a little excited. John 
confided to his twelve-year-old brother, Alphonse, that 
he bet him two agates "he's some big bug — something 
like a Rockefeller. Anyway, ma's going to have griddle- 
cakes for supper, just on account of him." 

When the stranger, who called himself Hayes, had 
eaten his sixth griddle-cake with maple-syrup, he said: 
" Finest meal I've had for a year. You are a splendid 
cook, Mrs. Currier. And that syrup — my, I should like 
to take some of that back home with me. Will you 
sell me some, Mr. Currier? I'll have the stage take it 
over to Ozark and ship it from there by freight. How 
much is it?" 

"Oh, well, it's rather late in the season for good syrup, 
so I calculate I'll let you have it for seventy-five cents 
a gallon." 

"You farmers are the biggest cheats I know," was 
the stranger's astonishing reply. "You cheat your- 
selves all the time, and that's why a lot of you are poor 
and stay poor. Down in the city they always charge 



76 STORIES OF THRIFT 

more for an article when it begins to get scarce. What 
you should have said is: 

"Why, this is extra fine quality and you can't pick it 
up everywhere this time of year, so while the early 
price is seventy-five cents, I'll have to charge you one 
dollar and fifty cents. I would have paid it in a min- 
ute." 

"Well, it isn't more'n once in a dozen years that we 
see anybody in these parts who doesn't try to beat us 
down to nothing," said Mr. Currier. 

Mr. Hayes tried to explain that the farmers ought 
not to allow themselves to be beaten down. 

"You owe it to your children and your wife to make 
as much money as you can honestly," he said. 

Dishes were almost forgotten, as Mr. Currier and his 
wife and Mr. Hayes talked about the problems of farm- 
ing. On the way over in the stage Mr. Hayes had asked 
the driver about the prosperity of the different farmers, 
and when he heard that the Curriers were considered 
the poorest family in that section, he had said to him- 
self: "I'll stop off there and see if I can't help them out 
a bit." 

Mr. Hayes held an important position at Washington 
in the Department of Agriculture, and was more inter- 
ested in the farmers of the country than in any other 
class of people. He was always saying: "The farmers 



ONE WAY OUT 77 

are the finest folks in the world. They aren't afraid of 
work, and they make the best kind of citizens. I'd 
rather have my sons brought up on a farm than in the 
city or even in a town. It's the farmers that keep the 
cities going." 

When Mrs. Currier had finished her dishes and sent 
the children to bed, she joined the two men. Mr. Hayes 
greeted her with — 

"I've been trying to tell your husband that if he will 
take better care of his health for a while he'll feel as 
well and be able to do as much work as before he was 
sick. Nothing takes so much of a person's strength 
and ambition as pneumonia. He ought to eat rich, rare 
beef once every day, and instead of three meals, for a 
time he ought to have four. City folks eat three and 
they don't work so many hours a day as you do. From 
five till seven is a pretty long pull. He doesn't need to 
eat a lot of different things, but you just try making 
him eat milk, eggs, beef, and stews, and four times in- 
stead of three, and in six months he won't know him- 
self. Instead of drinking tea at every meal, make it 
once a day, and all of you take milk or chocolate or hot 
broth the other two times. Your tough roosters will 
make good broth and won't cost you much. 

"Honestly, Mrs. Currier, I believe you and your 
husband have a wonderfully fine farm here, and I can't 



78 STORIES OF THRIFT 

think of a single reason why you shouldn't prosper so 
that when your children are ready you can give them a 
good education. But the first thing is to build up Mr. 
Currier's health. In addition to the four meals, I wish 
he would try taking a short nap in the middle of the day. 
After the twelve-o'clock dinner he ought to He down for 
a half-hour. When your husband is like himself again, 
I'm sure things will look brighter." 

"Yes, but we can't do much without money," Mrs. 
Currier replied. "Our barn is almost falling to pieces and 
we ought to have another cow, and until Silas gets strong 
enough to work as he used to we need a hired man 
through the summer. But it's useless to think of that 
because we simply can't get any money. I'm strong 
and well, but I can't do everything." 

"Can't you borrow five hundred dollars by taking 
out a mortgage on your farm?" 

"I don't believe anybody would lend us money on 
this place without charging us ten per cent interest," 
said Mr. Currier. 

"Yes, but you don't know that until you've tried. 
Your wife looks like a good business woman. What 
she wants to do is to get the names of all the people who 
have money to invest for twenty miles around and then 
try one after another for a loan. Say that you will pay 
six per cent and no more, and don't act as if you ex- 



ONE WAY OUT 79 

pected to be turned down. If you can't raise the money 
up here, I'll find somebody in the city to lend it, but I 
think you'll get it here." 

Mr. Hayes had insisted on being called to eat break- 
fast with the family, so they all sat down together by 
lamplight the next morning. 

"This is a really old-fashioned house, isn't it?" Mr. 
Hayes remarked between his mouthfuls of oatmeal. 
"I had a bright idea last night when I kept hearing the 
honk-honk of the automobiles. There isn't any kind 
of a place between Clinton, ten miles north of here, and 
Ozark, twelve miles south, where anybody can be sure 
of getting a good meal. And these automobile travellers 
are the hungriest kind of folks. This little valley is as 
pretty as. a picture, and with a few changes your rooms 
could be made to look as they did forty years ago; the 
attractions of the scenery and of your house would draw 
people like a magnet — especially if you would feed them. 
If I were you I should put up a sign-board down by the 
road with something like this printed on it: 



HOME-COOKED FOOD FOR SALE 

Hot and Cold Drinks and Sandwiches Served 
Here 



80 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Winter and summer I should keep that sign up, and I 
believe you would make money. Your children could 
help you out a good deal/' 

Mrs. Currier talked over this idea with John and 
Alphonse while Mr. Hayes went off over the mountain 
with her husband looking at timber. Even eight-year- 
old Esther listened eagerly, and said she could help 
make sandwiches. 

"Let's paint the sign right off," suggested John, "and 
show it to Mr. Hayes when he comes back." 

He hunted around the barn until he found a weather- 
beaten board, and with the help of his mother inserted 
the words in green paint. 

"Do you think we'll make a hundred dollars?" asked 
Alphonse, who thought that to own a hundred dollars 
would make a family rich. 

"There's no telling," said his mother. "The more I 
think about it the more I like the idea. I wonder that 
I never thought of it myself. In hot, dusty weather I 
am pretty sure my raspberry shrub and ginger shake 
would taste good to folks." 

When the men returned it was already dark and sup- 
per was on the table. 

"You'll have a queer supper tonight," said Mrs. Cur- 
rier with a laugh. "I'm going to try on you some of 
the things I could make to sell. I want you to tell me 



ONE WAY OUT 81 

what is good and what isn't. Do you suppose you could 
stand three kinds of drinks ?" 

"I'm sure I could," said Mr. Currier; "I'm as hungry 
as a bear. We climbed the mountain and came back by 
the stage road. Mr. Hayes says we've got some fine 
timber up there. And what do you suppose? He says 
we could get enough timber out of the poorer growth to 
build a barn. So I'm going to get that out this winter, 
have it dressed at the mill, and start the barn in the 
spring." 

For a while everything was forgotten but the novel 
supper. 

There were cheese-and-jelly sandwiches, made out of 
Dutch cheese and wild-grape jelly; cheese-and-nut sand- 
wiches, made of cream cheese and butternuts; plain 
bread-and-butter sandwiches, spread thick with delicious 
butter; large spicy doughnuts; elderberry wine; rasp- 
berry shrub; ginger shake made of cider vinegar, mo- 
lasses, and water; plain cake with a thick frosting of 
maple-sugar and shagbark walnuts. 

"Of course I can make other things, but I didn't have 
time today. Coffee, eggs, and the like I should have to 
fix when they were wanted," said Mrs. Currier. 

"Perfectly delicious," was the verdict pronounced by 
Mr. Hayes on everything that he ate. 

"I can see that I don't need to say another thing, 



82 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Mrs. Currier; you can work out your plans better than 
I possibly could do it for you." 

He approved of the sign — green paint and all. " You'll 
want to have a lantern hung over it after dark so as to 
get evening trade, too," he said. 

What interested John more than anything else was 
the talk, after supper, about the timber on the moun- 
tainside. 

"Did you know, Mrs. Currier, that you and your 
husband are really rich people?" said Mr. Hayes, while 
John and Alphonse looked at him in blank astonishment. 

"You own half a mountain of the finest timber land 
in this part of the country, and fifteen acres of rich val- 
ley land. That is greater wealth than nine-tenths of 
the city folks have. Only a few city and town people 
have any property except their furniture and clothes. 
They live in rented houses and spend most of their 
money in paying rent, buying food at high prices, and 
trying to have a good time. At the end of the year they 
often have nothing to show for the money they have 
spent. 

"Here in the country every fence that you build, every 
tree that you plant, is so much added to your wealth. 
When you get a new barn and have your house repaired, 
one of these days some man with a fat pocket-book will 
turn his automobile up to your side door and ask how 



ONE WAY OUT 83 

much you'll sell for. He will offer you a big sum — for 
there's many a city man that would pay dearly for a 
summer home with a mountain as a back yard — but 
you'll tell him it's good enough for you to keep." 

The secret ambition of John's had been some day to 
go to the city to live, for he had an idea that if he was 
ever going to be rich he would have to get a job in the 
city. Mr. Hayes had seen the astonished look in the 
boys' eyes and the next morning asked them to go for 
a tramp with him. 

"If your father owned a big estate near a large city 
and kept a lot of servants, horses, and automobiles, he 
wouldn't have anything finer than these woods. In the 
spring he's going to send to the State Department of 
Agriculture and get three hundred spruce seedlings to 
plant. By cutting out only a few trees at a time and 
planting new ones he can make this land more valuable 
every year. 

"One thing I want to show you is these wild grape- 
vines. Every fall there is a large demand in the cities 
for wild grapes to use in making jelly and preserves. 
Your mother can use most of them, and the rest you 
can sell. Therefore, you want to take care of these vines, 
and start a new one once in a while." 

"I never knew that folks planted things in the woods," 
said Alphonse in surprise. 



84 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"That's one of the best places to plant the right kind 
of things/' replied Mr. Hayes, "since forest soil is always 
rich. Then up in the clearing I saw a few raspberry 
bushes. Raspberry jellies, shrub, and jams always bring 
good prices, so I suggest that you two boys start out to 
see what you can do with that clearing. Set out a hun- 
dred more cuttings this year and a hundred next. See 
that not a berry goes to waste. I think you'll have great 
fun with it." 

When Mr. Hayes left by the evening stage the whole 
family felt as if they were losing a real friend. 

"Oh, you'll hear from me," he said. "I'm going to 
write to you every once in a while and ask how you are 
getting on." 

"He has done us more good than if he had given us 
money," said Mrs. Currier. 

"He seems to think folks can make money even if 
they do live in the country," was John's comment. 



IX 

ONE WAY OUT 

(Continued) 

About a week after Mr. Hayes's departure Mrs. Cur- 
rier harnessed up old Jerry, put a sack of grain into 
the wagon, and a lunch for herself, and set out down the 
river road. She was off on an all day's trip to find some 
one who would lend them five hundred dollars. Never 
had her courage been greater than on that morning. 

"And it's all because of one man," she said to the 
horse. "Why, what under the sun is that?" she ex- 
claimed. She had rounded a bend in the river and in- 
tended to turn the horse up the mountain road at the 
left, but a new sign-post caught her eye. 



HAND-MADE TOYS FOR SALE 
INQUIRE WITHIN 



In amazement she read and re-read these words. 
Then she laughed. " So, old Hiram Johnson, that every- 

85 



86 STORIES OF THRIFT 

body says is a lazy ne'er-do-well, has taken to working. 
Guess he's had the same visitor as we have had. Think 
I'll drop in a minute." 

So she turned into the drive that led up to the house. 
While she was getting out, Hiram came to the door, 
leaning heavily on his cane, for he was badly crippled 
with rheumatism. 

"I suppose you saw my sign," he said, "and came to 
see what it's all about." 

Mrs. Currier noticed that while the house was as un- 
tidy as ever, it seemed cleaner. Even Hiram himself in 
some way looked different. 

Before she could ask a question, however, her host 
said: " Sit down and let me tell you about it. The other 
day the stage stopped to leave my paper, and along came 
a stranger who said he wanted to stay all night. It's 
been some time since anybody has wanted to put up 
here, but I said he was welcome if he could get along 
on tea and crackers, for that's all I had just then. My 
rheumatism was particularly bad that day, so I said 
if he wanted a fire in his bedroom he would have to 
make it. 

"Well, do you know, he made himself just as much at 
home as if he'd known me all his life. He said his father 
was a farmer, and used to have rheumatism just as bad 
as I. When he found how poor I was, and how Si Pierce 



ONE WAY OUT 87 

was going to foreclose the mortgage next spring, he got 
real interested, and said there ought to be some way out 
of that. I almost laughed in his face when he asked 
me if there wasn't some kind of work I could do. I 
told him I hadn't been able to walk farther than the 
barn for two years. I said : ' I can't do much but whittle 
to pass the time away, and there isn't an}^ money in 
whittling.' 

"To make a long story short, he wanted me to try 
whittling out toys to sell to automobilists. At first it 
seemed just worse than hog sense, but he insisted that 
city folks liked hand-made things, and the wood wouldn't 
cost me anything, so I'd better try. I'm only making 
horses and cows and hens now, but later I'm going to 
make barns and wagons, and the whole outfit," 

"Well, I never!" said Mrs. Currier. "That same 
man stopped up at our house and cheered us up a lot. 
I guess nobody else would have thought of making 
wooden toys to sell." 

"I've already sold several dollars' worth. See here. I 
charge twenty-five cents a piece for the hens, and thirty- 
five for the cows and horses. Later I shall make a larger 
size and charge more. I told Mr. Hayes nobody would 
pay high prices like those for toys, but he said he knew 
better. I suppose half the folks stop just for curiosity, 
and then they get interested and buy." 



88 STORIES OF THRIFT 

When Mrs. Currier again drove on she kept saying to 
herself: "Well, I never should have thought it," mean- 
ing that she hadn't supposed Hiram Johnson would brace 
up as he had. The call had cheered her, and although 
the first two men she asked about lending her money 
had looked thoughtful and shaken their heads, she 
would not let herself be discouraged. 

She stopped for just a minute to call on old Mrs. 
Sayers, who was deaf and lame, and lived alone with 
her six big cats. When she told the old lady what she 
was trying to do, she had nodded approvingly. 

"You've got one of the best farms round these parts," 
said Mrs. Sayers. "Just you keep going, and some day 
you'll be riding in your automobile," and she laughed 
shrilly at her own words. She had called after Mrs. 
Currier when she was driving on: "Stop here on your 
way back, and I'll make you a cup of tea." 

All the afternoon the old lady sat by her window 
knitting and chuckling to herself. It was fast growing 
dark before she heard the sound of wheels again, and 
Mrs. Currier's voice saying: "I won't come in. It's 
late now, and I've got a lot to do when I get home." 

"Did you get your money?" asked the woman. 
"No? Well, that's too bad. You just come in. I've 
got something to say." 

Mrs. Currier reluctantly hitched old Jerry and came 



ONE WAY OUT 89 

into the cozy sitting-room where six cats were peace- 
fully sleeping on the sofa and behind the stove. 

"Why wouldn't Eben Simonds lend you the five hun- 
dred ?" the old lady asked abruptly. "He's got so 
much money he doesn't know what to do with it." 

"I don't know, I'm sure/' said Mrs. Currier slowly. 
"He said he'd have to have ten per cent, and he seemed 
quite indignant when I told him I wouldn't pay over 
six." 

Again the little old lady laughed shrilly. "I know 
what's the matter," she said. "They all know that you 
and your husband are hard up, and they think they'll 
take advantage. But business is business, and six per 
cent is business. Well, Lucy Currier, I've always ad- 
mired your pluck. You haven't had a fair chance, and 
I want to see you have it and win out. I'm going to 
lend you that money at six per cent, and I'm not doing 
you a favor, either. The bank only pays me four per 
cent. Any day next week that you'll come and get 
me, we'll go over to Ozark and have this fixed up. And 
don't you tell a living soul where you got the money." 

The rest of the way home Mrs. Currier was saying to 
herself: "If I hadn't started out to get that money 
Mrs. Sayers never would have offered to lend it. I 
guess it pays to try." 

All that winter the Currier household was a changed 



90 STORIES OF THRIFT 

place. As John said: "Even the roosters crow a little 
louder." 

John's sign had been hung out, and in spite of the bad 
weather and the light travel, hardly a day passed that 
somebody did not stop for "a drink" or " something to 
eat." Mrs. Currier had figured out that a cup of coffee 
cost her only one cent, and that by selling it for five 
she made a profit of four cents. Often she was asked to 
fill a thermos bottle, and to pack up some sandwiches. 
By the first of June she had cleared thirty dollars. 

She wrote to Mr. Hayes: "Perhaps that won't seem 
much to you, but it will pay the first year's interest on 
that five hundred dollars." And he had replied: "I'm 
proud of you. Only you aren't charging enough. Coffee 
like yours is worth more than five cents. Try asking 
eight cents." But Mrs. Currier said it didn't seem 
right, and kept to her first price. 

With June came the really busy days. Mr. Currier 
had been obliged to hire a strong young man to help 
him with the spring and summer work. Mrs. Currier 
and the boys had every minute taken up with the house- 
work and serving strangers. Occasionally, somebody 
would leave the stage and ask to be put up over night, 
and this always meant a dollar. "And it's cheap at 
that," said one man. 

"Huh, anybody could do what Lucy Currier is doing," 



ONE WAY OUT 91 

said one of the neighbors. But not everybody would 
have planned so carefully, nor worked so patiently as 
she. She had made it a rule from the first not to sell 
any food or drink that was not as good as she could make 
it. Consequently, no one who had eaten at her house 
could say that she was not an expert cook. Everybody 
wanted to stop there again. Even the Curriers' spring 
water seemed a little clearer and a little colder than 
anybody else's. 

During the winter at school John and Alphonse had 
told some of the other boys about the raspberry cuttings 
that they were going to plant. Most of the boys laughed 
at the idea, but one of them seemed much interested. 

"Say, we've got a lot of blackberries in one of our 
pastures," he said. "We don't do anything with them. 
Do you suppose we could make some money if we canned 
them?" 

"Shouldn't wonder," said John. "A man that knows 
all about farms said that nothing good to eat ought ever 
to be wasted. We're going to make our grapes and rasp- 
berries into shrub, jam, and jelly, and sell it." 

So the boy took the suggestion home, and to his sur- 
prise his father said: "Yes, that is a good idea. I've 
always thought that something ought to be done with 
those blueberries, and with the blackberries, too. I'll 
let you have all you can make on them, only you'll have 



92 STORIES OF THRIFT 

to do all the work. If your mother helps you, of course 
you must divide the profits with her." 

When late fall came the Curriers' new barn was up, 
and the family felt that better days had indeed come to 
stay. One night Mr. Currier said to his wife: "I hate 
to let Frank go" — this was their hired man. "He's a 
good worker and he needs the money, but I can't afford 
to keep him all winter." 

"What Mr. Hayes wrote in his last letter made me 
think of Frank," remarked Mrs. Currier. "You remem- 
ber he said: 'You must pass along the lift that I have 
tried to give you. Help somebody else to be brave and 
to find a way out, and you will be making the world 
happier and richer.' It almost looks to me as if we 
ought to pass some help along to Frank, but I don't 
know just how. It seems he is the youngest of his fam- 
ily, and the oldest brother managed it so that when their 
father died, the farm came to him, and there was no 
place for Frank." 

It was Mr. Currier who finally solved the problem. 
He had stopped at Hiram Johnson's one day, and at 
supper said: "Hiram's rheumatism is worse, but he 
seems to be making money. He made over two hundred 
dollars this summer, and has a lot of orders for Christ- 
mas. He makes a complete barn, one wagon, two horses, 
two cows, a dog, and some hens, and sells them for seven 



ONE WAY OUT 93 

dollars. He has orders for seven of those besides other 
things. But he needs somebody to look after the house 
and keep it clean. He said he couldn't afford to pay 
anybody, but he could give room and board. So I was 
wondering, Frank, if you wouldn't take the job. After 
snow comes and I begin to cut timber I can give you 
work, but why don't you take this in the meantime ?" 

"What did father mean by wanting Frank to do 
housework?" asked John of his mother that evening. 

"Housework is just as much a man's work as it is a 
woman's," she replied. "It won't hurt Frank a bit — 
ought to do him good, and, anyway, it means a chance 
to earn his living." 

So Frank became Hiram's helper, for he had the right 
kind of determination. At Christmas time Mrs. Currier 
wrote Mr. Hayes: 

"Frank can make just as good griddle-cakes as I, and 
I think we have helped him out a little. By another 
year perhaps we can keep him through the winter." 

Mr. Hayes always thinks of the Curriers as one of his 
successful experiments. Do you know why ? 



X 

BEING POOR 

"If only we weren't so poor!" wailed Harriet to her 
mother one day after school. "Just the minute the 
girls find that I live on Sheafe Street; they act queerly. 
I've asked five or six girls down to see me, but none of 
them come." 

Mrs. Johnson's heart ached for her daughter, but her 
\oice was courageous, as she said: "The girls will soon 
learn that you are just as respectable and just as good a 
friend, if you are poor and live on a back street. You 
must have patience, dear." 

Harriet began to set the table for supper and said 
nothing more, but her mother noticed that there were 
tears in her eyes. She winked them away quickly, how- 
ever, at the sound of her brother's whistle. Harriet 
admired her sixteen-year-old brother Paul more than 
any one except her mother, and she would not for the 
world have had him think her "one of those grown-up 
cry-babies" that he often spoke of. 

At supper Paul had a piece of good news that proved 
quite exciting. 

94 



BEING POOR 95 

"Mr. Elson, one of the members of the firm, called 
me into his office today and said some nice things. He 
thinks that I have the making of a good architect in me, 
and he says it is too bad that I can't go to a technical 
school for several years. I told him that was impossible. 
Then I explained that father was an architect and had 
injured his spine in a railroad accident, and that we all 
had to go into the country to live until he died. Hon- 
estly, mother, after I had told him about you and Har- 
riet and what I wanted to do, he couldn't have treated 
me better if I had been one of his partners." 

" Every man that is worth while has only respect for any 
boy who is trying to do his best," said his mother gently. 

Harriet's eyes glowed, but all that she said was: "Isn't 
that great, Paul?" 

That evening when Paul was drawing at the kitchen 
table, after Harriet had gone to bed, his mother said: 
"I want your advice about a little plan that I have in 
mind. It seems that the girls in Harriet's room are just 
as silly and vain as girls often are, and they are making 
poor Harriet unhappy. You see, this isn't the nicest 
part of town, and I judge by what I have seen, that most 
of the families on this street are so poor and discouraged 
that they don't care how they or their houses look. The 
girls of Harriet's age at school assume that because we 
live here, we are like our neighbors." 



96 STORIES OF THRIFT 

" What's the matter with those girls, anyway ?" said 
Paul. 

"Oh, they're only natural/' his mother replied. "We 
are in a way judged by the company that we keep, and 
by living among shiftless people we seem to make our- 
selves one of them. If we weren't so poor we shouldn't 
be living here, but for the present here we must stay. 

"Now, my plan is this: We must try to make our 
neighbors more tidy and self-respecting by showing 
them that to be poor doesn't mean tumbled-down fences, 
disorderly yards, and woe-begone faces. This is only a 
short street, and it could be made attractive if all the 
houses and yards were well cared for. There is no street 
in town that has finer trees than the big elms that shade 
this. Now if we can live up to these elms, nobody can 
scorn us." 

"But how can we do anything with these people? 
We don't even know most of them by name, and I'm 
sure that if Harriet chums with these girls the other 
girls will only look down on her the more." 

As Mrs. Johnson explained her plan to Paul, he be- 
came as eager as only a big healthy boy can be. The next 
night on his way home from work he stopped to see the 
owner of their house, who also owned most of the other 
houses on Sheafe Street. 

"I'm Paul Johnson," he said to the weary-looking 



BEING POOR 97 

man before him. "Our house at 15 Sheafe Street is 
badly in need of paint, and I wanted to say that if you 
will furnish the paint I will do the work. I think the 
fence ought to be painted, too." 

The owner smiled a little as he said: "It would be only 
a waste of money to do that. If I painted your house I 
should have to paint them all, and I'd get no thanks for 
it. None of the houses down there are good investments. 
The tenants are nearly always behind in their rent, and 
when a family moves out the house looks as if it had been 
through a fire." 

"Well, sir," and Paul drew himself up proudly. "We 
are poor but we want to be proud of our street and our 
house. Wouldn't it help you to get better tenants if 
you had one neat-looking house?" 

It wasn't so much what Paul said as his clean, straight- 
forward manner that made an impression on his landlord. 

"Takes some pluck for a poor young fellow like that 
to come here with such a request," said the man to him- 
self. He agreed to think it over and let the Johnsons 
know later. 

They heard nothing, but on Friday four cans of white 
paint and one can of green were left at the house. So on 
Saturday afternoon Paul began his work. The house 
was a low cottage, and with one ladder, which the owner 
of the house lent him, he was able to get along. It took 



98 STORIES OF THRIFT 

three Saturdays to paint the house, and two evenings to 
paint the blinds. 

"It certainly does set the house off to paint it up," 
said Paul. 

After the green blinds were on, the little cottage was 
conspicuous the whole length of the short street, and 
the report was passed along from house to house that the 
Johnsons "had money" and had bought their house. 
Mrs. Johnson laughed when one of her neighbors called 
and asked if this were true. 

"Bless you, no," she said. "We're too poor to do 
more than pay our rent promptly and get a bite to eat. 
But this is our home, and we want to make it as attrac- 
tive as possible." 

After a little, Harriet fell into the spirit of the under- 
taking. 

"It's almost as much fun as a game," she said one 
Saturday, as she helped Paul set out some honeysuckle 
vines. Poor as they were, they had decided to invest 
five dollars in some shrubbery and vines. By going to 
the nursery for the plants they got more for their money 
than they expected. After they had planted woodbine 
at the corner of the house and had started honeysuckles 
along the fence, there was one set of roots left over. So, 
in the evening, Mrs. Johnson called on one of her most 
untidy neighbors. 



BEING POOR 99 

"I won't stop/' she said. "I just wanted to ask if 
you wouldn't like to have a honeysuckle vine started up 
over your piazza. We have some extra roots, and Paul 
will be glad to set them out for you." 

The woman assented in a half-hearted manner, saying: 
" Things don't seem to grow round here. I don't know 
why. It isn't much like the country." 

After a few minutes' conversation, Mrs. Johnson found 
her way to the woman's heart by talking with her about 
the farm in a distant State, where she had lived as a 
girl. 

Little by little the street began to show a respectful 
attitude toward the new family, and two of the neigh- 
bors made determined efforts to repair their fences and 
clean up their yards. One of the most forlorn houses on 
the street was owned by a little old woman who lived 
alone. When Paul one day, at his mother's suggestion, 
knocked at her back door and asked if he might not cut 
her grass and mend her fence, she shut the door in his 
face. But several weeks later, just as they were at sup- 
per she came to their back door and asked to see "the 
young man with the honest blue eyes." Mrs. Johnson 
made her come in and gave her a cup of tea. 

"I haven't always been a poor, cross old woman, and 
I'm ashamed of the way I treated your boy. I haven't 
any money to pay him, but if you'll let me do some knit- 



100 STORIES OF THRIFT 

ting for you, I shall be glad to have him clean up my 
yard." 

The inside of their house the Johnsons had finished 
as tastefully as possible without buying anything new. 

"We'll always keep our rooms just as we used to before 
we were so poor," said Mrs. Johnson, " and we can make 
believe we have a lot of friends who may call on us at 
any time." So the rooms were always bright and sunny 
and cheerful. Both Harriet and Paul insisted that they 
would rather sit in the kitchen evenings, but Mrs. John- 
son had her way and every night after the dishes were 
washed, they lighted the parlor lamp and sat around it 
until bedtime. 

One day Paul asked an office friend out to supper 
and to spend the evening. His mother had welcomed 
the idea, but said: "Just remember, Paul, that we are 
really poor and must not pretend anything else. I can't 
get up a fancy supper. We will have what we should 
have anyway, and there will be plenty of it." 

"Oh, mother," said Harriet, as she helped set the 
table, "shouldn't we apologize for not having anything 
better?" 

"No, Harriet. An apology should never be made 
except when a person has done something rude or un- 
kind. If Paul's friend likes us and enjoys himself, he 
will be glad to come again." 



BEING POOR 101 

It was only corn chowder, bread-and-butter sand- 
wiches, hot chocolate, and sponge-cake that they had for 
supper that night. But there was such fun relating 
school and office experiences that even Harriet forgot 
she had wanted to apologize. 

After that, once every week the Johnsons had what 
they laughingly called their "At Home" evening. "We'll 
all understand/' said the mother, "that every Thursday 
either or both of you may have a friend to supper and to 
spend the evening. You won't need to ask me before- 
hand. I shall always be ready." 

Every Thursday, when Harriet got home from school, 
she changed her school dress for her second-best challis 
and put on her long, white muslin apron that tied over 
the shoulders in little bows. Her mother put on a special 
dress and her best white apron. Many Thursdays there 
were no guests, and the three had their "At Home" all 
to themselves. They either played games or planned 
what new thing they could do to help the street. And 
always they had some simple refreshments. "It looks 
silly," said Harriet, "to go to all this trouble just for us." 

"I don't agree with you," said the mother. "No 
trouble is too great for me to take for you and Paul. 
And it is a greater pleasure to me than you can know to 
have a quiet, happy evening like this." 

"Harriet," Paul had said the first Thursday, "let's 



102 STORIES OF THRIFT 

practise doing this refreshment act right. I'll do it this 
time, and you the next. Some day we may have to pass 
refreshments to a celebrity, and I should like to know 
how to manage without spilling the coffee all over myself 
and the fair lady." 

"I think we are making some progress with our neigh- 
bors/' said Mrs. Johnson one day. "Mrs. Hawkes came 
to the back door yesterday to borrow some sugar. It 
was just four o'clock, and the parlor looked so cozy and 
cheerful that I made her come in and sit down while I 
made her a cup of tea. I used my best china cups and 
toasted her some crackers, and we had a pleasant chat. 

"She asked me if I was expecting company — I was so 
1 dressed up' and my parlor looked so fine. I said no, I 
thought more of my own family than I did of any com- 
pany that I could have, and that I wanted my house 
and myself to look as attractive as possible all the time. 
Today I notice that she has been cleaning her parlor. 
She has taken down those cheap lace curtains, and I hope 
she won't put them up again." 

Mrs. Hawkes had a back-door calling acquaintance 
with all the families in the street, and soon every woman 
knew that Mrs. Johnson used her parlor every day and 
made tea out of a copper teapot that had a lamp under 
it. After a little, other neighbors began to come to Mrs. 
Johnson's back door at about four o'clock, and always 



BEING POOR 103 

there was a cup of tea with sometimes a bit of cake, but 
often only toasted crackers, and always it was served in 
the parlor. 

Mrs. Johnson took pains to return every call, and 
always went to the front door. She was so sweet and 
sympathetic that the neighbors were really glad to see 
her. Before six months had passed it was Mrs. Johnson 
who was consulted when Mrs. Mahoney wanted to buy 
a new chair for her parlor, or Mrs. Evans was going to 
give a party and did not know what games to play or 
what refreshments to serve. Front yards and back 
yards were cleaned up and fences were repaired all along 
the street. As one man said: "If a young fellow like 
that Paul Johnson, who works hard all day, isn't too tired 
to slick up, I guess some of us old folks aren't either." 

One Thursday evening they had no guests and were 
not expecting any, but at eight o'clock the door-bell 
rang. Paul went to the door, and Harriet and her mother 
were astonished to hear him greet some man cordially 
and invite him in. In a moment he was saying: " Mother, 
this is the owner of our house, Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams, 
this is my sister Harriet." 

Both Harriet and her mother shook hands with the 
tall, thin man who had a face that looked as if it had 
forgotten how to smile. After a few minutes of general 
conversation, Mr. Adams said: "My agent tells me that 



104 STORIES OF THRIFT 

you are one of the best tenants we ever had, and I just 
dropped in to inquire if any repairing was needed. You 
may not realize it, but there are not many families that 
take as much care of another person's house as you do. 
Tenants often seem to feel that a landlord is a heartless 
person, and they try to get even with him by letting the 
house and yard go to ruin. I feel sure that most land- 
lords want to do the square thing. At least I want to 
show how much I appreciate your influence in this 
neighborhood." 

"We are getting to enjoy our neighbors," said Mrs. 
Johnson. "Many of them were only discouraged." 

"What they evidently needed was your example," 
the man replied. "Most of the families here are not 
really poor. Probably half the men on this street earn 
at least twenty dollars a week, and none of them pay 
over fifteen dollars a month for rent. I long ago dis- 
covered that it is not always the people who look and 
act poor that have the least money." 

Harriet excused herself for interrupting, and said: 
"Mother, which would Mr. Adams prefer, chocolate or 
tea?" 

"Oh, don't trouble, please," said the man in embar- 
rassment. 

It took little urging, however, to get him to say that 
he preferred tea, so while Mrs. Johnson and the landlord 



BEING POOR 105 

discussed wall-papers, Paul filled the alcohol-lamp under 
the teapot and Harriet made the tea. When the best 
china cups and the cake had been brought out, Harriet 
signalled to Paul to serve, but his eyes said: "No." 

So Harriet made believe that the landlord was a 
real celebrity, and served her mother and their guest as 
gracefully as if she had done it many times before. 

As the door closed behind their landlord, Mrs. John- 
son said laughingly: "It must have been that cup of tea 
that made him say he would repaper three rooms for us 
and let us select the paper. At first he spoke of doing 
only two." 

And it may have been that cup of tea which finally 
won Harriet the girl friends that she so much craved. 
For one evening the next week Mrs. Adams and her 
daughter Helen called, and Harriet was invited to spend 
Saturday afternoon at their home. 

"The Johnsons don't seem like poor people," said 
Mrs. Adams to her husband. 

"They haven't always been poor," he replied, "and 
they won't always be. That boy Paul has the right kind 
of stuff in him, and he has the right kind of mother, 
and some day they will be able to afford to pay more 
than fifteen dollars a month rent. I wish there were more 
people like them; they never complain of their poverty 
and never apologize." 



XI 

WASTED OLD PEOPLE 

Miss Farwell had called on all her pupils except 
Walter Lewis; she dreaded going to his home, for she 
was afraid the family were poor. But one cold, snowy 
Saturday he had driven down the mountain for her in 
his sleigh, and she had not had the heart to refuse him. 
It was a slow, uphill ride most of the way, and dinner 
was ready when they reached the little, low farmhouse 
on the steep hillside. She was greeted eagerly by Mrs. 
Lewis, and before they sat down to the table the aged 
grandfather and grandmother and an invalid aunt came 
and shook hands with her shyly. 

In a soft, mellow voice the grandfather said " grace," 
and then Walter, his mother, and Miss Farwell talked. 
The old people and the invalid ate little and said little, 
but beamed at the school-teacher until she felt almost 
micomfortable. 

"Yes, we dread the winters/' said Mrs. Lewis, as she 
and Miss Farwell lingered over their tea after the others 
had been excused. " Since father is too old to get about 

106 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 107 

much, Walter and I have all the work to do; but we 
don't mind that. Father, mother, and sister Mary 
haven't strength enough to do any hard work, and that 
means that most of the time they must sit around read- 
ing or doing nothing. They would gladly help me if 
they could. In summer they have the flower-garden, 
and there isn't a finer one in this part of the country, 
and of course in winter we have a few house-plants, but 
it doesn't take much time to care for those." 

Like every one else who is young and strong, Miss 
Farwell had never realized that when old people little 
by little lose their strength time hangs heavily on their 
hands. After dinner, while Walter and his mother were 
doing the kitchen work and the barn chores, the grand- 
mother showed Miss Farwell the scrap-books of poetry 
and recipes that she had made from newspaper clippings. 
"These aren't of any account/' she said, "but they give 
me something to do." 

When they had finished the scrap-books, she went to 
the bedroom off the sitting-room and brought out some 
heavy old encyclopedias. "This isn't of much use 
either," she said in a rueful voice, as she turned the 
pages and showed pressed ferns, bits of vines, maple- 
leaves, and different kinds of grasses. Old Mrs. Lewis 
was so deaf that all Miss Farwell could do was to smile 
and look interested. At her expression of genuine amaze- 



108 STORIES OF THRIFT 

ment at the many different grasses, the old grandfather 
drew his chair nearer. 

"Perhaps you didn't realize there were so many. 
Most folks don't/' he said, and explained to her the 
names of each kind and where it grew. 

"That's simply fascinating/' said Miss Farwell. "I 
should like to be able to remember it all to tell my pupils. 
Do you suppose your wife would lend me these speci- 
mens to take to school? I would be ever so careful of 
them and send them back by Walter." 

When Mr. Lewis put his lips to his wife's ear and ex- 
plained what Miss Farwell wanted, the old lady became 
quite excited in her pleasure. 

"And if you would be willing to tell me about them 
again, I'll write it down," said Miss Farwell. 

"I should be glad to," said the old man eagerly. "But 
you leave them for Walter to bring and I'll write out the 
descriptions." 

Miss Farwell assented, for she was beginning to real- 
ize what a hard kind of life it was for people who had been 
strong and active in their younger years, to spend then- 
old age in idleness. And she felt that old Mr. Lewis 
would welcome the task of writing out the descriptions. 
"I think I should go insane if I were in their places," she 
said to herself. 

The winter days were short on the mountainside, and 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 109 

at four o'clock when the lamps were lighted Mr. Lewis 
said: "Won't you come into Mary's room and visit with 
her awhile? It's such a treat to have you that we all 
want a share." 

The little bedroom was warmed by an air-tight wood- 
stove and the invalid sat before it wrapped in a dressing- 
gown. 

"I want to show you my bird diary," she said. "I 
never was much interested in birds until I fell sick and 
stayed sick, and then I just had to do something. Prob- 
ably you don't realize what a blessing it is to have work 
to do. I use all the old pieces of cloth that I can get for 
rags to braid into rugs, and I knit all our stockings, but 
we don't wear out many, and we don't need any more 
rugs, so it's hard to know what to do. If it wasn't for 
my diary, I should be pretty unhappy. I've got so that 
I know all the birds that live round here and those that 
travel through and just stop for a little while. Every 
evening I note down those I've seen, what they were 
doing, and the like. I'm no hand at drawing, but when 
I see a new bird I make a rough sketch so that I shan't 
forget how it looked." 

" Why, Miss Lewis, I think this diary is perfectly won- 
derful!" exclaimed Miss Farwell. "I never dreamed 
there were so many birds in this part of the country, and 
I don't see how you learned to know them." 



110 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"In summer I lie out under the trees and in the edge 
of the woods for hours, and in winter I scatter crumbs 
on my window-sills and on the ground; and they come 
here by the dozen." 

"Well/' laughed Miss Farwell, "I've just been trying 
to borrow your mother's collection of grasses, and if I 
dared I should ask to borrow this diary to read to my 
children." 

"I shouldn't like to part with it," said the invalid, 
"but won't you let me copy out what you want and 
send it to you? It would give me something to do." 

The next day Miss Farwell wrote to her mother this 
letter: 

Dear Mother: 

Please give me some ideas. I want to find some- 
thing for two old people, a grandfather and a grand- 
mother, and a middle-aged invalid to do. They are 
poor and would love to have some kind of work, but 
there's nothing to do. I never thought of it before, 
but it seems to me that old age is a dreadful waste. 
I think old people ought to have something to do. 
Please write at once. 

Lovingly, 

Amy. 

P. S. The middle-aged invalid knits and braids 
rugs. 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 111 

Then Miss Farwell wrote a long letter to, one of her 
college professors^ asking him if he could suggest some 
way in which she might help Walter's family. In a few 
days answers came to both letters. Her professor wrote : 

Perhaps you would like to know how we have 
made the old people in our home useful and there- 
fore happy. 

My mother was always a busy woman, but after 
my father died she came to live with me, and of 
course we thought that she ought to do no house- 
work, and there seemed to be nothing else. One day 
she said to me: "Old folks are just wasted, aren't 
they ? There are just as many hours in my day as 
in yours, but I don't have an hour's work to do." 
That made me think; I talked it over with my wife, 
and we agreed to find mother something to occupy 
her mind and her fingers. 

We gave her all our mending and plain sewing, 
and paid her the $2.50 a week that we had been 
paying a seamstress. Then one day she said: 
" Don't you suppose there are some of the other 
professors' families that would let me do their 
plain sewing? You folks don't have enough to 
keep me busy." 

At first it hurt our pride to let the neighbors know 



112 STORIES OF THRIFT 

that mother was working, but I knew it was right 
because it made her happy and useful. Now she 
averages about ten dollars a week. She insists on 
paying us a few dollars each week that she calls 
"board," and then she has enough left to buy her 
clothes. When you stop to think, isn't this the 
kind of independence you would like to have when 
you are old? 

Now as to your problem. Isn't there something 
that the old folks and the invalid can make that 
you could help them sell? I am interested in that 
collection of grasses and ferns. Tell the old gentle- 
man that I will pay him ten dollars for several 
weeks' rent of it, so that I can make notes and 
sketches to use in my botany classes. And if the 
invalid can write interestingly about the birds, 
perhaps I can get some paper to take a monthly 
letter from her, and pay her a few dollars. 

Miss Farwell's eyes were glowing when she finished 
the professor's letter and opened her mother's. 

Dear Daughter: 

I have many times thought it a great pity that 
simply because people grew old they should have 
nothing useful to do. I have been thinking hard and 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 113 

making inquiries since your letter came, and I find 
that two of the specialty stores here will take all 
the hand-made baby things they can get. Now, of 
course, the grandmother can knit, so I am sending 
you the sizes for stockings, mittens, and petticoats 
for children from 6 months to 4 years of age. I am 
also sending the worsted to start on. If the aunt 
can't knit, I think I can get some orders for braided 
rugs. If you will send me two or three for specimens 
I will show them to as many people as possible, 
and take orders. Haven't yet been able to think 
of anything for the grandfather. 

Mother. 

Miss Farwell sent a long letter to Walter's mother ex- 
plaining about the knitting and the rugs, and the follow- 
ing Monday Walter brought a note and a pint bottle 
of butternut meats. 

"Grandfather sent these to you, Miss Farwell/' he 
said. "The folks all think you are wonderful." 

"Oh, Walter, I've just had another idea! If you 
have a lot of butternuts, why can't your grandfather 
crack them and pack the meats in little boxes? We 
can send these to the city to sell. A person can almost 
never buy butternut meats there. I'm sure they would 
be a success!" 



114 STORIES OF THRIFT 

And they were, and so were the stockings, and the 
mittens, and the rugs. The money that the Lewis family 
made would not seem a large sum to most people, but to 
the old folks it was almost too good to be true. And 
best of all, it made them feel that they were not wasting 
themselves. 

At the spring vacation, when she went home, Miss 
Farwell and her mother compared experiences. 

" Since you first wrote me about the Lewis family, 
I've been inquiring into what old people in the city do 
after they get too old to keep up their regular work," 
said her mother. "Do you remember the Simondses? 
You know they are rather poor. Well, it seems that 
Mrs. Simonds's mother lives with them. The old lady 
was extremely unhappy at having to be dependent 
on her son, although both he and his wife were as 
kind as they could be to her. One day she said: 
'Why don't you furnish that back bedroom and rent 
it, Ella?' 

"'We haven't any furniture, and I haven't time to 
look out for a lodger,' was her daughter's reply. 

"A day or two later the old lady said: 'I have a plan, 
Ella. I want to send for the bedroom furniture that I 
stored down at Weymouth, and furnish the back bed- 
room with it. Then I want you to advertise for a roomer 
and let me take all the care of the room. I'm perfectly 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 115 

able to. That will make me feel as if I were paying my 
board.' 

"The old lady had her way, and a bank clerk rented 
the room. I heard him say that he had never been so 
comfortable since he left home. Everything is spotless; 
his bureau drawers and closets smell of lavender, and his 
slippers are always where he can find them. 

"That's how one woman kept from wasting herself. 

"Another old lady has turned story-teller. She has 
sent around letters to all the families that she knows 
where there are children, saying that for twenty-five 
cents an hour and car-fare she will go to anybody's house 
and tell the children stories. Or, if a mother prefers, 
she may bring the children to her to be amused. She 
always takes with her a rag doll to illustrate one of the 
stories that she tells, and this doll has so fascinated 
the children that she now has orders to make others 
like it." 

"Well," said her daughter, "I don't see why old peo- 
ple aren't worth something besides just to be cared for 
and loved. I remember that old lady Chamberlain used 
to say she wished she could do something besides making 
holders and dish-cloths for people that didn't need them. 
I suppose there are a good many old people who have 
money enough to live comfortably who would still like 
to feel that they could use their time to advantage. In 



116 STORIES OF THRIFT 

school I am always telling my pupils that time is too 
valuable for anybody to waste ; and I should think that 
might apply to old folks as well as to young people. 
Now that I think of it, I am going down to see Mrs. 
Chamberlain before I go back." 

The next day Miss Farwell started out to make the 
call. She rang the bell many times but got no response. 
As she finally turned away, she saw a little old woman 
in the door of a house farther down the street beckoning 
to her. 

"Why, that looks like Mrs. Chamberlain/' she thought. 
And it was. It seemed that every week-day Mrs. Cham- 
berlain went to her neighbor's house to take care of two 
little children while the mother went to work, or else 
the mother brought the children to her. 

"You see," she explained to Miss Farwell, "I'm well 
and have all the money I need for living expenses, but 
I don't have enough to do. I didn't want to waste time 
and health, so I tried to think of some way that I could 
make myself genuinely useful. I discovered that Mrs. 
Lane, whose husband is dead, could earn twice as much 
money by taking a position in the city as she could by 
doing sewing at home. So I told her that I would look 
after the children and do the housework while she was 
gone. It works beautifully. I am helping her earn 
enough to pay her bills; it doesn't cost me anything but 



WASTED OLD PEOPLE 117 

time, and I'm sure this is better than knitting to kill 
the hours." 

"Well," said Miss Farwell, "I'm going to tell every 
discontented old person that I see to get to work at 
something right away." 



XII 
BEING RICH 

"Well, I wish I were in his shoes ! " said William, one of 
the errand boys, to another, as the president of the firm 
left the office in his fur-lined overcoat and stepped into 
his waiting limousine. "Do you suppose we'll ever own 
our three automobiles?" asked Henry. 

In a few minutes the two boys forgot the big pile of 
letters they had to stamp and seal, and earnestly dis- 
cussed what they would do if they were rich. 

"You can just believe I shouldn't come into the 
office every day if I had the money that the head of our 
firm has," was the conclusion that William came to. 

One of the stenographers who was passing happened 
to hear this last remark. 

"So you think Mr. Estabrook doesn't need to come 
into the office every day ? " she asked. " That shows that 
you boys don't know yet what it means to be at the head 
of a firm like this. I suppose you think all the president 
has to do is to draw money and spend it. Would you 
believe me if I said that there isn't a person in the 

118 



BEING RICH 119 

whole office who works as hard from one year's end to 
the other? Last winter, when Mr. Estabrook was sick 
abed, he had a stenographer and a boy come out to the 
house and kept them busy every minute. His letters 
were read to him in bed, and he dictated answers until 
his nurse made him rest. 

"He almost never takes a real vacation. Most people 
think that because he moves his family down to the 
seashore every summer he has a long rest, but it isn't 
so. Even when he doesn't come into the city he has 
letters and telegrams sent him. Last summer I had 
charge of the mail, and whenever he stayed down at the 
shore we either called him on the long-distance telephone 
two or three times a day to ask about things, or sent him 
the important letters and telegrams. There never was 
a day that we didn't send him at least five telegrams or 
telephone messages." 

Here one of the boys interrupted with "But I thought 
Mr. Estabrook was a very rich man." 

"He makes a great deal of money in his business, but 
if he didn't attend to everything as carefully as he does, 
he might become a poor man in a few years." 

That night William said to his father, who was a 
foreman in a shoe factory: "Do all rich men have to 
work hard? One of our stenographers says that Mr. 
Estabrook is the hardest worker in the place." 



120 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"I don't doubt it," replied his father. "It isn't an 
easy job to be at the head of a big business, even if you 
make forty thousand dollars a year from it. The more 
money you make, the more looking after it takes. One 
morning last week I got to the shop earlier than usual — 
I think it was about half past six — and whom should I 
see just leaving the front office but three of our directors. 
I thought something pretty bad must have happened to 
get them out so early, but what do you suppose ? Why, 
they had been having a meeting to talk over some im- 
portant business matters, and had been there all night. 
The superintendent said they seldom finished any of 
their evening meetings before one o'clock. 

"I don't know that I care about being rich if you 
have to work just as hard as if you were poor," said Wil- 
liam after a few minutes. 

"Well, if you are afraid of hard work, you may be sure 
of one thing — you'll never be rich. I used to think, just 
as you do, that some day I should like to have enough 
money so that I shouldn't have to keep a regular job, 
but could have a place in the country and take things 
easy. Now I've changed my mind. I think it was in- 
tended that we should all work hard; it's good for us. 
There's a deal of satisfaction in getting things done and 
done right, and in watching your pay envelope get fatter 
and fatter." 



BEING RICH 121 

William was looking thoughtful, and said nothing. 

"You know that fine big clubhouse down by the 
river?" 

"Yes," said William, "one of the boys at the office 
calls it the Gold Bugs' Loafing Club." 

"You can tell him he's all wrong/' replied his father. 
"I know the steward of the club, and one day he took 
me over it. It was noon-time when I was there, and the 
dining-rooms were full. 

"Having a nice, easy time, aren't they?" I said. 

"Depends on what you mean by an easy time," he 
replied. "They're all busy men, and just because they 
sit at the table a couple of hours doesn't mean that they 
are doing nothing but eat. I think you would find that 
all the groups of men are talking business. Most of 
them can't afford to take an hour for lunch, but of course 
they must eat, so they come down here and talk busi- 
ness at the same time. 

"Look at that group over there by the window. See 
how in earnest they all are. Every one of them has for- 
gotten to eat. That large man is the president of the 
Realty Trust Company — don't know who the others 
are, but I'll venture to say they are working as hard as 
if they were in a down-town office." 

The next day William looked curiously at Mr. Esta- 
brook as he went into his private office. 



122 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"He certainly does look tired/' he said to himself. 

That day he kept a sharp watch of Mr. Estabrook's 
door to see who went in and out. By noon he had counted 
twenty-five men who had asked for Mr. Estabrook, all 
insisting that they must see him on important business. 
Twenty of these men had been admitted to the private 
office. When twelve o'clock came ; William decided to 
eat the lunch he had brought from home and see what 
Mr. Estabrook did. At half-past twelve the president 
rang for a stenographer; and it was two o'clock before 
his secretary came out, saying: "Here, William, go over 
to the restaurant and get two chicken sandwiches and a 
bottle of milk for Mr. Estabrook." 

At four o'clock Mr. Estabrook left, saying: "If any- 
body needs to get me on business, I shall be at the club 
until six o'clock. I'm going to New York on the night 
train, but expect to be back by six tomorrow." 

"I have been on the watch all day, Henry," said Wil- 
liam, "and I don't believe it's a whole lot of fun to be 
rich after all. Anyway, it's hard work. Mr. Estabrook 
hasn't been out of the office today until just now." 

A few months later a clean-cut, athletic-looking boy 
of seventeen appeared at the office at eight o'clock ready 
for work. 

"Huh, he's pretty old to be starting in as office boy," 
said William to Henry. 



BEING RICH 123 

"Stupid!" replied Henry; "he's Mr. Estabrook's 
son. He's come in to learn the business. Don't you 
understand?" 

"I don't see how it's learning the business to go for 
the mail, run errands ; clean waste-baskets, and do a lot 
of other nasty little jobs. I hope you don't think that 
you and I are learning the business?" he finished with a 
scornful laugh. 

"Maybe/' said Henry. "When I first came here, the 
principal of our grammar-school, who wrote a recom- 
mendation for me, said that I had an unusual oppor- 
tunity, and that to get to the top of any business or pro- 
fession it was always necessary to begin at the bottom. 
Then, when it was decided that Mr. Estabrook's son was 
coming in here, his secretary said : ' That's the only way 
to make a good business man of him. He must work his 
own way or else he will never be able to do what his 
father has done. I admire any rich man's son who is 
ambitious and isn't contented to live on his father's 
money without working!' 

"Look here, William," continued Henry, half laugh- 
ingly and half seriously, "let's make believe we are Mr. 
Estabrook's sons and are learning the business from the 
bottom up, and perhaps some day we shall be members 
of the firm." 

But William was the kind of boy that is always a little 



124 STORIES OF THRIFT 

afraid of hard work. He was looking for easy things 
to do. 

Many boys, and men, too, seem to think that a rich 
man's life is an easy one. It is true that the rich man 
has large sums of money to spend, and usually owns a 
beautiful home and many things that every one covets. 
But except for a few idle rich persons who have had their 
money left them, wealthy men lead the busiest kind of 
lives. The richest lawyers and doctors are almost always 
the ones who are so busy that year after year they can- 
not find time to take a vacation. In one of our large 
cities a celebrated children's specialist died in his prime. 
The autopsy showed that his heart was worn out. He 
had worked himself to death, although he was a rich 
man and was greatly envied by the poor young doctors. 
From his boyhood until the year that he died he had 
worked days and nights, for a doctor must do much of 
his hardest work when others sleep. People from all over 
the country brought their sick children to him, and 
while this was a great honor to him, it left him no time 
for rest or recreation. 

The lawyer who easily makes many thousands of dol- 
lars each year is fortunate if his working days are less 
than sixteen hours long. In addressing some young 
men one day, a successful and wealthy lawyer said: 



BEING RICH 125 

"Well, boys, you can't succeed at anything without 
paying a high price. And the price is (1) hard work, 
(2) hard work, (3) hard work. And after you have suc- 
ceeded you can't keep on being successful without pay- 
ing the same price — hard work. As one principal said 
to his pupils: i Growing boys and girls who are still at 
school must play as well as work. But all of you must 
learn how to work if you are to be successful or happy or 
rich.'" 



XIII 
RIGHT GIVING 

Howard Briggs, who sold newspapers at the corner of 
Market and Main streets in Millville every day after 
school, had met with an accident. One of the boys was 
excitedly telling his teacher, Miss Mayberry, about it 
the next morning. He was run down by an automobile 
and his right leg broken, and to the boys of the school 
this seemed almost the greatest misfortune that could 
come to a vigorous thirteen-year-old boy. 

"Now, if it had been his arm," suggested one sym- 
pathizer, "he could have that done up in a sling and 
come to school just the same." 

"Yes," said another, "and perhaps he could even 
have sold papers with his good hand." 

"My, won't he be disappointed not to get promoted 
next spring!" exclaimed one of the girls. 

Miss Mayberry, who had been listening but had said 
little, now spoke. 

"I must attend a teachers' meeting this afternoon, so 
I can't call on Howard, but I suggest that you appoint a 

126 



RIGHT GIVING 127 

committee of three to give him our sympathy and find 
out if there is anything we can do to help him." 

The pupils agreed to this eagerly, and the next morn- 
ing directly after the opening exercises Miss Mayberry 
asked for a report from the visitors. Edwin Foster was 
made the spokesman. 

"Why, Miss Mayberry/ ' Edwin began eagerly, 
"Howard is the pluckiest boy you ever saw. He looked 
pretty white and smelled like an apothecary shop, but 
he said he wanted his schoolbooks sent home so that he 
could keep up in all his studies. I told him we'd help 
by letting him know just how fast we were going." 

"Yes," said Miss Mayberry, "and if the doctor as- 
sures us that he is able to do this work, perhaps we can 
make some arrangement for him to send the regular 
written work to me to correct. But I have another sug- 
gestion to make if you have finished, Edwin." 

"I guess that's all," the boy said slowly, "except that 
I'm afraid the Briggses are awfully poor. While I was 
talking with Howard I sat down on the edge of the bed, 
and something rattled. I looked a little surprised, I 
suppose, and Howard said: 'Oh, that's only newspapers. 
Ma puts them between the blanket and the spread to 
help keep the cold out.' 

"I call that being pretty poor, don't you, Miss May- 
berry?" Edwin asked. 



128 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"I've no doubt that the Briggs family does have a 
hard time to get along/' said Miss Mayberry, "but I am 
sure it was a very sensible thing for Mrs. Briggs to do. 
It is well known that a layer of newspapers between 
blankets or between a spread and blanket is very effec- 
tive in keeping the cold out. This is much cheaper than 
buying a blanket. 

"But I am wondering/' continued Miss Mayberry, 
"if there is not some help besides assisting Howard with 
his studies that we can give him. Have any of you any 
suggestions?" 

Almost instantly there were a dozen hands waving 
eagerly in the air. 

One girl suggested that they send Howard some flow- 
ers. "Sick people always have flowers given them/' 
she said. 

Another said that it would be better to send fruit. 
Edwin thought they ought to buy a warm blanket. 

"Well/' said Miss Mayberry, "none of you have 
thought of the suggestion that I had in mind. Howard 
has been a successful newsboy, hasn't he?" she asked. 
"He told me once that he never made less than three dol- 
lars a week, and that all of this, except what he needed 
for clothes, he gave to his mother toward the rent. What 
do you suppose Mrs. Briggs will do now without How- 
ard's money?" 



RIGHT GIVING 129 

There were no ready answers, and Miss Mayberry 
continued : 

"There is much money wasted in wrong giving, and 
none of us have any money to spend foolishly. As 
Edwin has already suggested, I think we should do all 
that we can to help Howard with his studies so that he 
will not waste a year's time. A poor boy like Howard 
can't afford to be put back a year at school. But in 
addition to this I think we ought in some way to help 
him make money." 

"I have it," exclaimed Edwin. "Some of us boys 
can take turns in selling his papers for him. This will 
hold his corner until he's well again." 

"What would you do about the money?" asked one 
of the boys. 

"Why, we'd give it to Howard, of course." 

"Yes, that is my idea," said Miss Mayberry. "Some 
people think that if a person is in trouble you should 
give him money. But it is much better to help him 
earn money if possible. Instead of having different boys 
take turns selling papers, I think it would be much 
wiser for some one boy who needs a little extra money, 
to talk the matter over with Howard and arrange to 
sell the papers on commission. This would be busi- 
nesslike and fair. I don't know just how the News 
Service Company would feel about such an arrange- 



130 STORIES OF THRIFT 

ment, but I will have our principal talk it over with 
them." 

"Oh, Miss Mayberry," said one of the girls in a be- 
seeching tone, " can't we send him some flowers?" 

"Where will you get them?" asked the teacher. 
"Flowers don't grow wild in February." 

"We should have to buy roses, or carnations, or some- 
thing like that from the florist." 

"Yes, but carnations cost a dollar and a half a dozen 
this time of year ; and for that sum of money you could 
buy a fat chicken, which would do Howard more good 
than the flowers. But I understand what you feel, 
Esther. It seems to you that we can show our sym- 
pathy better by sending something beautiful. I used to 
feel that way myself, and if you could go out into the 
country and bring back flowers or leaves, I should say 
by all means to do so. But to pay a dollar or more for 
flowers that will last only a few days is not wise when 
Howard needs so many things. A little later, when he 
first gets onto his feet, he will need a pair of crutches. 
Perhaps you can help buy those." 

The first recitation bell then rang, and the regular 
school work of the day was begun. Miss Mayberry 
could not help feeling that Esther, and perhaps many 
of the other pupils, did not agree with her about the 
flowers. However, she said nothing more, and the girls 



RIGHT GIVING 131 

bought the chicken, after first asking Mrs. Briggs if it 
would be acceptable. 

"It is a rule of mine/' Miss Mayberry had explained, 
"always to inquire of the person to whom I am going to 
give anything eatable or perishable if it will be wel- 
come. Perhaps, for instance, some one may have just 
given Mrs. Briggs a chicken, or perhaps the doctor has 
said that rich beef will be best for Howard." 

Miss Mayberry had made her listeners laugh heartily 
by telling them that during an illness of hers, when the 
doctor had forbidden her to eat anything sweet, all her 
friends sent her jellies, custards, and ice-creams, which 
the rest of the family enjoyed. "They might have sent 
me things that I could eat, only they never thought to 
inquire." 

When Miss Mayberry herself had time to visit the 
Briggses she found Howard propped up in bed, his leg 
stiff in a plaster cast, but his face wreathed in smiles. 

"I'm getting along all right in my arithmetic," he said 
eagerly, "but the English grammar bothers me — and I'm 
a little worried about my paper corner. I was wonder- 
ing if the principal would be willing to ask the News 
Company if I can have it back when I am out again." 

"That's one thing I wanted to talk about, Howard," 
said Miss Mayberry. "The boys have offered to take 
turns selling papers on your corner to hold it for you, 



132 STORIES OF THRIFT 

but I think it would be better if some one boy, like Paul 
Ford, should do it all the time. He needs money, for 
his father has just died, and there are several children. 
You could engage him to work for you, and pay him a 
share of all that he made. This would still give you 
some of the money that you used to earn, and would 
keep the business in your own hands. You would be 
an employer instead of an employee. " 

"That's just the idea!" exclaimed Howard. "Paul 
can have half of all the net profits, and 111 lend him my 
rubber coat and cape and high boots. Tell him to come 
round to see me tonight, will you?" 

In a week's time the hundreds of men and women who 
streamed past the corner of Market and Main streets 
on their way home from work heard a new voice piping: 
"All the latest papers! Paper, sir!" To the many in- 
quiries as to where Howard was, Paul explained: "Leg's 
broken. I'm working for him. He'll be back soon. 
Paper, sir!" 

When Miss Mayberry found that the boys were greatly 
disappointed at not being able to help sell Howard's 
papers for him, she went to the principal and asked him 
if she had made a mistake. 

"No," he said. "It is better business policy for cus- 
tomers to get used to seeing the same boy every day 
than to find a new face each time. But I have a sug- 



RIGHT GIVING 133 

gestion to make to the boys. I'll come in just after 
recess." 

The moment the principal said he wanted to talk 
about Howard every face was alight with interest. 

"I think the boys in Howard's class can help him by 
what we call in business 'advertising/ Each of you can 
ask your fathers and acquaintances, and even strangers, 
to buy their papers of Paul. You will, of course, explain 
that Howard is poor but plucky, and that you want to 
help him to help himself. By the way, boys and girls," 
the principal said as he turned to go, "that's a pretty good 
motto for each of you to have — 'Help yourself, and help 
others to help themselves.'" 

"Yes," added Miss Mayberry, "don't you all think it 
is much better to give this kind of help to Howard than 
just money or flowers?" 

Many heads nodded in assent, although a few faces 
looked doubtful. But when at the end of two months 
Paul reported that his newspaper business had increased 
so rapidly, thanks to the boys' advertising, that he was 
able to turn over three dollars a week to Howard and 
keep two himself, everybody was convinced that Miss 
Mayberry's way was best. 

Every Friday afternoon the pupils in Miss Mayberry's 
room had a surprise — provided the conduct of the room 
had been sufficiently good. One week the principal had 



134 STORIES OF THRIFT 

brought in some photographs of air-ships and explained 
how they were run, and what might be accomplished 
with them in time of war; another Friday Miss May- 
berry had showed them some doilies and lace made of 
pineapple fibre by the children in the Philippines. The 
Friday following the incidents just described, a large 
box had been brought to the school by the expressman 
and left in the dressing-room. When the pupils returned 
after dinner, they gazed in astonishment at Miss May- 
berry's desk, which looked like a show-case in the fancy- 
goods department of a store. One girl whispered ex- 
citedly to another that their teacher was going to give 
them each a present. But no one knew what Miss May- 
berry really intended to do until she explained it herself. 
"The other day when we were discussing what kind 
of presents were suitable to give a sick person, I wondered 
if I couldn't help you all by explaining what I feel about 
useless gifts. All the articles on this desk were given to 
a friend of mine, whom I will call Miss S , last Christ- 
mas and the year before, and she has had them packed 
away in the attic. They are all pretty, but most of them 
are useless, and she had no place to put them. Here 
are five fancy pincushions, but she needs only one, and 
already had a serviceable one that will probably last her 
at least five years. The only thing that she can do with 
these is to give them away again, but she dislikes to do 



RIGHT GIVING 135 

this for fear she will give one to somebody who already 
has too many. I wonder what you would advise her to 
do with them?" 

Several hands waved, but Miss Mayberry said: "Wait 
until I have shown you the other things, and then we 
can talk them all over. 

"Here are six hatpin-holders, two made of pink 
ribbon, two of blue, and the others of mixed colors. It 

happens that Miss S has only two hatpins, and these 

she almost always keeps in her hat, for it wears out the 
straw or felt to keep making new holes. So these are 
really useless to her, although they are dainty and well 
made." 

"Miss Mayberry," asked Esther in answer to the 
teacher's look of permission, "what is that large yellow 
box ? Isn't it beautiful ! ' ' 

"I don't know just what this is, but I suppose it was 
intended for gloves or handkerchiefs. It is too large to 

fit into any of Miss S 's small bureau drawers, and 

she can't have it out in sight, for this color doesn't match 
any other color in the room. 

"These vases," Miss Mayberry continued, as she 
pointed to three very gaudy-looking pieces of china, 
"are really not at all beautiful, although they may have 
been very expensive. A vase is something that I should 
never think of buying for another person, unless I knew 



136 STORIES OF THRIFT 

that person's tastes and something about what he al- 
ready had or wanted. If Miss S sets up any of 

these at home, they will have to take the place of some 
vase or other ornament that she likes. So she simply 
packs them away in the attic. 

"The other things here are very much like those I 
have just pointed out. Here is a big fancy cologne- 
bottle, but few people keep on hand a large quantity 
of cologne, and if they did, a plainer bottle would be 
better than this. Of these two pairs of bedroom slip- 
pers, one is too small and the other too large. 

"Probably the articles on this desk together cost about 
twenty dollars. Think of all that money really wasted ! " 
Here Miss Mayberry stopped abruptly. "But perhaps 
you don't agree with me. Now I'll listen to what you 
have to say." 

"My bureau drawer is full of things that I don't know 
what to do with," said one girl. 

"But, Miss Mayberry," said Esther, "don't you be- 
lieve in giving Christmas presents? I like to get things 
even if I can't use them." 

"Indeed, I do believe in sending our friends gifts, and 
the simplest little present gives me pleasure. But most 
of us are too poor to waste even a cent of our money, 
and it is real waste to buy a useless article for ourselves 
or to give one to a friend." 



RIGHT GIVING 137 

Here one of the boys spoke up. 

" That's what I've heard father say. Last Christmas 
he said he didn't have one sensible present given him." 

"Perhaps you have all heard/' said Miss Mayberry, 
"of the poor home missionary's family in Dakota which 
was sadly in need of clothing. Some society had care- 
fully prepared a barrel of good things for them, which 
included a number of warm dresses, hoods, and under- 
clothing. But the poor missionary was dismayed when 
he saw these garments, for his girls were all boys." 

"Miss Mayberry," said one of the girls who had not 
spoken before, "what kind of presents can we give? 
If we have only ten cents to spend on a little present, 
it would look foolish to write and ask a girl what she 
wanted that wouldn't cost more than ten cents." 

"There are some things that are always useful, and 
when you do not know a person well enough to find out 
what she wants, you can give her one of these. If you 
give a girl friend something that ought to be useful to 
any one, she can give it away if she is well supplied. 
Perhaps you would like to know the kind of birthday 
and Christmas presents that I think are always suit- 
able." 

Everybody nodded, and Miss Mayberry continued: 

"The girl who sews can make many attractive gifts. 
A neat linen hemstitched handkerchief can be made for 



138 STORIES OF THRIFT 

ten cents or less, and no one can have too many of these. 
Every person needs to have a clean one every morning, 
and because handkerchiefs are easily worn out or lost 
it takes a good many to make a year's supply. A neat 
handkerchief is one of the signs of a careful person, and 
is a kind of recommendation. 

"Wash-cloths and towels are other things of which 
both boys and girls cannot have too many. A person 
should not use the same cloth more than half a week 
without washing it thoroughly; and, of course, each per- 
son in a family must use separate cloths, and constant 
washing wears them out. It is much more agreeable to 
keep one's body clean with dainty wash-cloths than with 
'just anything.' One of the presents that I had last 
Christmas was a box containing six face-cloths, hand- 
made, with my initial in the corner. 

"At Christmas and New Year's almost every one burns 
candles, so a present that I frequently make is a box 
containing two baybeny candles." 

"Yes, but candles aren't useful," said Edwin. 

"I didn't mean to say that every present should be 
useful — only that it should not be something that will 
be wasted. Anything that gives real pleasure is as suit- 
able a gift as a useful present." 

Ellen Richards now spoke. "I know a woman who 
always gives away candy for Christmas. I heard her 



RIGHT GIVING 139 

tell my mother that last year she had just five dollars 
that she could spend, so she made a list of the different 
persons she wanted to give something to. She bought 
the same number of small square boxes as there were 
persons in her list. These she lined with pretty green 
paper and filled with creamed walnuts, stuffed dates, 
and chocolate peppermints, that she had made herself." 

"I'm sure I don't know of a better present for Christ- 
mas or birthday than home-made candy," said Miss 
Mayberry. "Good candy is expensive to buy, and poor 
candy should never be bought; and if one can make it 
at home she can always give a suitable present to any 
friend. 

"An interesting story-book is a good present, and when 
I make a present of a book to any one I never write any- 
thing in the book itself, but slip in one of my cards or a 
piece of paper on which I say that if the friend already 
owns a copy of this book, she can pass it on to some one 
else. In this way I prevent the waste of one person's 
owning two copies of the same story. 

"Well, our time is up," said Miss Mayberry, looking 
at the clock, "but I am going to suggest that you talk 
this matter of gifts over with your parents and friends, 
and make out a list of useful and inexpensive articles 
that are sensible for presents, and next Friday we will 
discuss some of these." 



140 



STORIES OF THRIFT 



Here are a few of the articles mentioned in the lists 
handed in to Miss Mayberry: 



Story-books. 

Books on baseball, football, 
swimming, etc. 

Books of games and cha- 
rades. 

Handkerchiefs and aprons. 

Hair ribbons. 

Writing-paper and envelopes. 

Candy. 

Cracked nuts. 

Popcorn balls. 

Edging for underclothing. 

Hatpins. 



Gloves (if the right size is 

known). 
Cloth book-bags. 
Book-straps. 
Pocket note-books. 
Fountain pen. 
Pocket-knife. 
Nail-file. 
Orange-stick. 
Plain-ribbon sachets. 
Games. 
Baseballs. 
Postage-stamps. 



XIV 

SAVING MONEY 

One day in June in a large city newspaper appeared 
this advertisement: 

WANTED. — A clean, honest boy, not more than 
fifteen years old, who is ambitious and not afraid 
of work. The right boy will have a chance to learn 
the business and work up into a good position. 
Apply by letter. D. V. 13. 

Hundreds of boys who were just finishing the gram- 
mar-school applied for this position. Some of the appli- 
cants were tired of school and did not want to study any 
more, so they thought they would be independent and 
"get a job," as they called it. Others were poor and 
had to help out at home, and so could not attend school 
any longer. 

Mr. Brown, the man who inserted the advertisement, 
had his secretary inspect the letters and show him only 
the good ones. The secretary decided that thirty appli- 
cations were good enough to show his employer. After 
examining these, Mr. Brown gave the secretary ten let- 

141 



142 STORIES OF THRIFT 

ters with instructions to ask each of the ten boys to come 
to his office two days later at three o'clock. 

After the secretary had interviewed each applicant 
and made a note of his age, schooling, recommendations, 
and the like, he was to turn him over to his employer. 

These are some of the questions Mr. Brown asked 
each of the ten boys: 

1. Why aren't you going to school any longer? 

2. Don't you think that every boy and girl should 
go through the high school? 

3. If you get this position, do you expect to go to 
the night school? 

4. What should you do with the money that you 
earned here? 

5. Have you any money in the savings-bank ? 

6. What are your favorite books? 

7. What do you do with your spare time? 

Most of the boys were surprised at the questions, for 
they had supposed that if they were clean and honest 
and willing to work hard nothing more would be re- 
quired. But Mr. Brown knew that there was a big dif- 
ference even in honest boys, and he wanted the best that 
he could get. The position was that of office boy whose 
hours were from eight to six, with an hour at noon. The 



SAVING MONEY 143 

duties at first would be going for the mail; opening it 
and assorting it for distribution to the different depart- 
ments; folding, stamping, and sealing the letters at night; 
emptying the waste-baskets; and doing miscellaneous 
errands. The pay would be five dollars a week, with six 
at the end of six months if the boy was satisfactory. 
The right boy would be given every possible chance to 
learn the business and work up into a good position. 

At four o'clock when Mr. Brown called for his secre- 
tary, he said: "I have hired James Morgan. He will 
begin work tomorrow morning." 

The secretary looked a little surprised. "I thought 
James looked delicate, Mr. Brown. Do you think he 
will be strong enough to stand the long hours and the 
hard work here?" 

"I hope so/' answered Mr. Brown, "for he is going 
to make a good worker and a valuable man for us to 
have. He is the only one of the ten boys who has a bank 
account. When I asked him where he got the money, 
he said he had had to give his mother a dollar a week for 
the last two years, and what he had earned over that 
amount he had put in the bank." 

"And how big is his bank account?" asked the secre- 
tary curiously. 

"Only five dollars. It is not the amount but the fact 
of his saving that pleased me. If a boy can save out of 



144 STORIES OF THRIFT 

the few dollars that he earns Saturdays and nights after 
school; he is worth giving a chance. Then, when I asked 
him what use he would make of his five dollars a week 
if we hired him, he said that he should give his mother 
two dollars and fifty cents board money, sixty cents 
would go for car-fare, five cents each day for a glass of 
milk to go with the sandwiches that he would bring from 
home, fifty cents into his tin box to save toward clothes, 
and the rest into the bank, unless of course he needed it 
for something else. 

"I asked him if he wouldn't want to spend some of 
the money for books, and he said that they had a good 
many at home. He likes Dickens's novels and stories 
about great men like Napoleon, Robert E. Lee, and 
Alexander Hamilton. Altogether he seemed a promising 
boy." 

Mr. Brown had hired many boys during the thirty 
years that he had been in business, and had come to be- 
lieve that if a boy was not prudent and saving when 
fourteen, the chances were that he would not be when he 
was twenty. 

"Then I like to have boys in my business," he had 
explained one day to a friend, "who are thoughtful for 
their families. If a boy is considerate of his mother, he 
is likely to be considerate of those with whom he works. 
And if a boy reads books about the men who have made 



SAVING MONEY 145 

great successes, I know that he is looking further ahead 
than next week." 

Every thoughtful employer is much like Mr. Brown 
— he prefers to hire boys and girls who have learned how 
to save, and have thrifty habits. The boy who saves his 
own money is pretty sure to save his employer's. Many 
a man owes his failure in life to the fact that he never 
learned how to save. One day in a large city business 
concern the directors were holding a meeting to decide 
about combining two of their departments into one. To 
do this meant that the head of one of the departments 
would lose his position. 

"I am sorry to say," said the president, "that the posi- 
tion will have to go to Mr. Emery instead of to Mr. 
Fernshaw, although Mr. Fernshaw has been with us 
longer and is an efficient person. But in' the thirty 
years that he has worked for us he has saved nothing, 
and today is a poor man in spite of the fact that for sev- 
eral years his salary has been $10,000 a year." This 
decision meant that Mr. Fernshaw at sixty years of age 
lost a position that he had supposed would be his as long 
as he lived. But the president was right in thinking 
that the best man for a responsible position was not one 
who had saved nothing out of a salary of $10,000. 

A small town in Ohio was one day surprised to learn 
that a Herbert Wells, who was "only a carpenter," as a 



146 STORIES OF THRIFT 

woman said, had bought one of the finest pieces of land 
in the town and was putting up what seemed to be an 
expensive house. 

"I don't see anything queer about that," said one man 
to his wife at dinner. "Herbert Wells is now almost 
fifty years old, and from the time he was fifteen he has 
w T orked steadily at his trade. He has been an expert 
worker and has known how to save his money. Prob- 
ably he will build the most substantial house in town and 
will furnish it well, too." 

"Seems to me, I'd rather spend my money as I go," 
said his wife. "What pleasure is there in being poor for 
fifty years for the sake of building a house when you 
begin to be old?" 

"You are all wrong, Mary," said the husband. "If 
ever there was a happy family it is Herbert Wells's. 
They have never made a splurge of any kind, but they 
have always paid their debts, their clothes are good even 
if they aren't in the latest style, and they have some of 
the finest pieces of furniture in town. Just because Mrs. 
Wells has done her own work instead of keeping a maid, 
some of the women look down on her. I don't. I think 
she is the kind of wife any man should be proud of. I 
hear they have just taken Wells's second son into the 
bank. He's just like his father, steady-going and saving. 
Wish I could have got my son into the bank." 



SAVING MONEY 147 

"Well," said the woman with a sigh, "I suppose we'll 
have to begin to save sometime." 

Of course, this woman was all wrong. Every person — 
man, woman, boy, or girl — should save all the time. The 
person who always says he will begin to save " sometime" 
never does. " Sometime," like tomorrow, never comes. 

Girls need to learn to save and to start bank accounts 
as well as boys. One day the head of a fashionable 
dressmaker's shop asked a friend to recommend a prom- 
ising young girl that she could take in and train. 

"I want a girl that knows how to save. Most of the 
girls and women in my shop are so wasteful that I can't 
afford to pay them good wages, and they are all the time 
complaining about the small pay. I can't seem to make 
them understand that they are wasteful. In looking 
over my accounts last night I found that over five hun- 
dred dollars last year had to be charged up to ' spoiled 
goods' or l waste.'" 

"I don't understand what you mean," said the friend. 

"Why, you see, all the materials for dress goods that 
come into my shop are of the nicest. If a girl makes a 
mistake and spoils even one sleeve of a gown, material 
for which costs four dollars a yard, it may mean the loss 
of a dollar. All the laces and trimming materials are 
expensive, but it takes constant nagging to make the 
girls as careful as they should be." 



148 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Can you tell in advance if a girl is going to suit 
you?" asked the friend. 

"I think so/' replied the dressmaker. "I discovered 
one day that only three of my women and girls had saved 
any money, and these three are my most valuable and 
best-paid workers. It happened in this way. When the 
dull season came last summer I was in a quandary to 
know which girls to keep, and which to let go ; so I asked 
each two questions: 'Do you have to support yourself 
entirely ? ' and ■ Have you laid by any money ? ' It was 
curious, but the three women wiio had not only them- 
selves but others to support were the only ones who 
had money in the bank. Several of the others had some 
money saved, but were keeping it hidden away at home. 
Now I ask every new girl that applies to me for a posi- 
tion about her savings." 

"Well," said the listener, "I suppose it never occurs 
to most girls that their future success in life may depend 
on whether they have a bank account." 

Many girls and boys think it is enough if they save a 
little money. It seems to them foolish to put as small 
an amount as three dollars in the bank. But it is safer 
in the bank than anywhere else, for there it cannot be 
stolen or destroyed by fire, and it is not idle. Business 
men will not let a single dollar lie idle. Every cent of 
their money is either in a bank, drawing interest, or is 



SAVING MONEY 149 

invested so that it earns something every year. If 
wealthy men cannot afford to let a single dollar remain 
unused, surely those who have only a few dollars need 
to make them work even harder. 

A principal was one day telling his pupils of the need 
of saving. "But how can you when you have nothing 
to save?" asked one boy. "I only get fifty cents a week 
and have to buy all my own shoes, stockings, and rub- 
bers. I can't save anything. If I did, I should have 
to go without rubbers, or else wear stockings that were 
so full of darns that they would hurt my feet." 

A girl said that she had no money except what was 
given her on her birthday or at Christmas, and some- 
times she had none at all. 

In answer to such questions and remarks, the principal 
gave a talk in the big school hall on "keeping accounts." 
What he said is so good that it is repeated in the next 
chapter. 



XV 

KEEPING ACCOUNTS 

When I was a boy I lived on a farm of fifty acres. 
Twenty acres of this was a timber lot, and the rest good 
pasture land. Father and mother were both hard work- 
ers. It seems to me that they were always busy, and 
when night came they were too tired to do anything 
but go to bed. My two brothers and I were brought 
up to help with the work just as soon as we were old 
enough to carry wood, build fires, and the like. 

But in spite of the fact that all of us worked as hard 
as we could, we were always poor. We had enough to 
eat, plenty of feather beds and bed clothes, but no books 
or money. 

Although I was only ten years old at the time, I re- 
member distinctly one night at supper. My father and 
my oldest brother had been off working in the wood- 
lot all day, and supper was nearly an hour late. I had 
never seen father so discouraged as he was that evening. 
He said he was too tired to eat, although mother had a 
hot supper of creamed chicken, cream-of-tartar biscuit, 

150 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 151 

tea, and quince marmalade. As he pulled off his long, 
heavy boots and put on his slippers, he remarked dis- 
couragingly : 

"My boots are all out at the side. Guess they've seen 
their best days, but goodness only knows when I shall 
have money enough for another pair." 

"Why, I thought you expected to sell some timber 
this winter," suggested mother cheerfully. 

"I've got over expecting," said father shortly, as he 
swallowed his tea disconsolately. 

Nothing more was said until supper was over and 
mother was washing dishes, then father began again: 

"Silas Jones came round today, and said that unless 
I would sell him those cedar posts for four cents a foot, 
he wouldn't take them. I told him he could take them 
or leave them, but I wouldn't take a penny less than 
five cents." 

Without waiting for any comment, father continued 
his tale of woe. 

"When on the way back tonight we met Jim Currier, 
and he says that unless I'll sell him my spruce firsts he 
won't take any. In two years' time those firsts will 
bring a couple of hundred dollars more than they will 
today, but because I'm so poor, I've got to lose that two 
hundred, I suppose." 

This discouraging tale of father's made quite an im- 



152 STORIES OF THRIFT 

pression on me, and I had a catch in my throat at the 
thought that if we were so poor as he said I should 
never get the baseball mit that I wanted. I remember 
that I glanced at mother expecting to see her face as 
long as father's ; but she only looked sober. After a 
while she said: 

"I've been thinking, John, that one reason why we 
don't get on is because we don't know where we stand. 
We never keep any account of the time, money, and 
labor that we spend on the different things. Perhaps if 
you could figure out what it costs to keep up that timber 
lot, you'd decide that it would be best to sell the whole 
twenty acres outright and put the money into something 
else. Or perhaps you would do better to hire one of these 
portable sawmills and sell dressed timber. It was only 
the other day that I was wondering why we never had 
any ready money like some of the folks round here. 
Take Jim Currier, for instance. When he married he 
didn't have any more money or a better farm than we, 
but now he could buy us out three times over." 

By this time mother had finished her dishes and taken 
up her basket of mending, but she hadn't finished what 
she wanted to say. 

"Business men have to keep a strict account of every 
cent and every bit of time that is spent on a job, and if 
they aren't making a good profit in one way they try 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 153 

another. I can't see, for the life of me, why that isn't 
the way to do farming." 

To my surprise, father seemed quite impressed by 
mother's remarks, and when she suggested that they 
start in at once to keep accounts of everything, he said 
he was willing if she would be the bookkeeper. 

From that day each member of the house, even I, had 
to write down at the end of the week the time and money 
spent for anything and everything. Of course, I didn't 
have any money, but I had to keep the wood-boxes full 
and to feed the hens, and so I put down how much and 
what kind of wood we burned in a week, and measured 
out carefully every bit of meal and other food given to 
the hens. 

Mother laughed when I asked her if she didn't want 
me to keep account of how much the different hens 
ate. There was one hen that I called "Greedy Goggle- 
Eyes." Her eyes seemed popping out of her head and 
she always ate twice as much as any other hen, and I 
ached to report her as too extravagant for our eco- 
nomical farm. 

Every Saturday night we had what father said was a 
meeting of the Home Bank directors. He called him- 
self president, mother treasurer, and us boys tellers. I 
didn't know then what a teller was but supposed it meant 
a person who had to tell what he had done. So far as 



154 STORIES OF THRIFT 

that was concerned; we were all tellers — father as well 
as we boys. 

To father's surprise he discovered that he could sell 
the cedar posts at four cents a foot and still make a profit 
of two cents, but he decided to hold on to all the spruces 
that were still standing. Another discovery that we 
made was that we could save on our stove wood by using 
pruned apple limbs for our open Franklin grate in the 
sitting-room. We had always let these go to waste 
before, but in some paper we read that apple wood made 
a hot, nice-smelling fire, and we found that it did. 

Another thing that keeping accounts showed us was 
that we had too many hens for profit. In summer we 
could dispose of all our eggs, for some of our farmer 
neighbors kept boarders, but in the winter the little 
country store wouldn't take them even in exchange for 
other things. Those were the days before there was any 
such thing as parcel post or keeping eggs in cold storage, 
and we were fifteen miles from a large town — too far to 
do peddling in the winter. So we decided to keep down 
the number of inhabitants of our hen-yard, and Greedy 
Goggle-Eyes one Sunday made us a very good dinner. 

We bought another cow, although we already had six, 
for mother said she could always sell more butter than 
we made, and she knew how to pack it away in the cellar 
so that it would keep for a long time. 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 155 

The result of our keeping accounts was almost unbe- 
lievable. By the time I was twelve years old father was 
paying me two dollars a month — he said that I was 
worth that in addition to my board and clothes — and 
I had not only the proper kind of baseball mit, but one 
of the finest kits of tools in the neighborhood. From the 
day that we began to put down just what money came 
in, what we spent for food for ourselves and for the hens, 
cows, horses, etc., how much time the different tasks 
took, we ceased to be really poor. 

As father said, we no longer had any "deadheads" 
even among the hens. 

From that day to this I have put down on paper every 
cent of money that came into my hands, and have kept 
a memorandum of what was done with it. This is what 
every family ought to do, whether poor or rich. No one 
has so much money that he would not like more, and the 
only way to get more is not to waste or spend any fool- 
ishly. 

I don't believe that a person need ever get in debt if 
he keeps account of all his money. Of course, in the case 
of accidents or sudden illness it may not be possible to 
pay the doctor at once. But there is nothing meaner 
than to let such bills run on month after month and 
year after year. Instead of uselessly worrying about 
doctor's bills, families should look over their weekly ex- 



156 STORIES OF THRIFT 

pense accounts to see how they can best save a few dol- 
lars a week. 

I know a family that has had a great deal of extra 
expense because of sickness, and it was necessary to 
economize somewhere, so each member of the family 
was asked to save all that he could. The mother looked 
over her grocery accounts and reported that if each per- 
son would eat a little less sugar and butter, would go 
without coffee except on Sunday mornings, and w^ould 
be willing to have more stew meat and less roast meat, 
she could save at least a dollar a week. Now, if this 
woman had not kept an account of how much sugar, 
butter, eggs, etc., she used, she would not have known 
where she could cut down expenses. 

The father decided that he would shave himself, black 
his own boots instead of patronizing the shine parlor, go 
without dessert with his noon lunch, have his every-day 
boots tapped a second time instead of buying new ones, 
and wait a year before buying a new overcoat. 

The oldest daughter, who was sixteen years old, said 
that she would get up a half -hour earlier in the morning 
so that she could walk to school instead of riding, and 
thus save twenty-five cents a week, and would take her 
lunch from home and save fifty cents a week. 

The eighteen-year-old son was the only member of the 
family who had not kept accounts, and he was the only 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 157 

one who declared that he could not save a cent. But he 
finally promised to save at least twenty-five cents a 
week "somehow." 

The result was that the doctor was paid three dollars 
every week ; and sometimes four, until the full bill was 
settled. 

I know a poor woman who always had such a cheer- 
ful, prosperous look that I often wondered what was the 
secret of it. Her husband was dead and she had two chil- 
dren to support. One day I said: "You must be a good 
manager, Mrs. Freeman, to keep your family so pros- 
perous." 

"We do have enough to eat and to wear, and a nice 
sunny flat," she said; "but it takes careful planning. 
Once I thought it would be extravagant to live in a clean 
flat on a good street, but I found that if I planned right 
we could do it. I never used to pay more than eighteen 
dollars a month for rent ; now I pay twenty-five dollars, 
and have good neighbors. You see, I let one of the big 
sunny rooms for three dollars a week; that pays the 
difference in my rent and more than pays for the gas. 
Then my daughter Helen, by wheeling a neighbor's 
baby after school every day and on Saturday after- 
noons, gets a dollar and twenty-five cents a week, and 
Bobbie still has his paper route from which he clears 
about two dollars a week. I work mornings at Mrs. 



158 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Gallup 's dressmaking shop, and take home work to do 
evenings. Mrs. Gallup can always depend on me, so 
she pays me well." 

Here she began to fumble in her bag, and pulled out 
a square yellow envelope. "You wouldn't expect that 
a woman like me would have money in the bank, would 
you?" she asked. "But I have," and she opened the 
book and pointed proudly to the figures which showed 
that her bank account amounted to ninety-eight dol- 
lars. 

I asked her how she had saved it, and she replied: "I 
can't live the way that most folks do — from hand to 
mouth — never knowing how much money I shall have 
when rent day comes. I must know where every penny 
goes. I'm not much of a hand at figuring on paper. I've 
always kept things in my head, but since Bobbie studied 
bookkeeping at school, he keeps account of his paper 
money and so I have him do my bookkeeping. Every 
Saturday he adds up our expenses, and we plan what we 
shall buy the next week. Of course, we shouldn't know 
what we ought to get unless we kept a list of what we 
have on hand. 

Mrs. Freeman again searched in her bag and brought 
out a neatly folded paper. "This is last week's list, 
which Bobbie copied into our book," she said as she 
handed it to me. 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 159 



Supplies on hand 

Y2 bag pastry flour Vanilla (almost gone) 
Barrel of bread flour (almost 1 lb. baking-soda 

empty) 1 doz. bananas (getting pretty 
5 lbs. sugar ripe) 

34 lb. coffee Apples (out) 

3^2 lb. cocoa y% pk. onions 

34 tub butter Prunes (out) 

8 eggs }/2 gal. kerosene oil 

Corn-meal (all out) Cold corned beef (enough for 
1 qt. molasses three suppers) 

Cash on hand 

Left over from last week $4 . 00 

From Mrs. Gallup 6.00 

For extra sewing 7 . 00 

Helen's money 1 . 25 

Bob's money 2.00 

Room rent 3 . 00 



Total $23.25 

To be put aside 

Toward rent and gas $5 . 50 

For milk 1% qts. per day 1 .05 

For 1 bbl. bread flour 6.00 

For 1 bottle vanilla 20 

For 3^2 bu. apples 60 

Total $13.35 

Balance 9.90 

"Each week," continued Mrs. Freeman, "I look over 
the list of supplies on hand, see how much money we 



160 STORIES OF THRIFT 

have, and then decide what I shall buy at once and 
what I shall let wait over until the next week. If the 
price of sugar or flour, for instance, is very high one 
week, I try in some way to get along until it falls a 
little. 

"We all keep our eyes open. Sometimes Bob will say 
that at a certain store he has seen sugar advertised at 
five cents a pound, when it is seven cents everywhere 
else. So if our supply is at all low we buy it there at five 
cents. 

"Oh, there are many ways of making ends meet. 
The pity is that so few people know how to do it." 

I once knew of a school in which every pupil in grades 
five to eight kept an expense account from September 
until school closed in June. Each boy and girl kept two 
accounts, one of all the money received and spent, and 
the other of the money spent either by the pupil him- 
self, or by his parents for him, on clothes, amusements, 
etc. A prize was offered for the best-kept account-book, 
but there were so many good books that at the last it 
was necessary to divide the prize-money into five parts. 
Only ten pupils showed books that were called poor. 
The principal considered the accounts so interesting 
that he showed some of them to the editor of the city's 
daily paper, and the three boys and the two girls who 



KEEPING ACCOUNTS 161 

won the prizes were surprised one day to see their pic- 
tures in print, and under the pictures this sentence in 
bold, black type: Five young people who will some day 
be successful business men and women. 



XVI 

THE COST OF CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 

One morning a street-car conductor forgot to supply 
his car with an extra fuse, and when half-way into the 
city there was a flash of flames and a burst of smoke, 
and everybody knew that a fuse had burned out. The 
conductor and motorman stood around, seeming not to 
know what to do. 

"What's the matter?" asked a business man impa- 
tiently. " Haven't you an extra fuse?" 

"No, we haven't," snapped the conductor. 

It was fifteen minutes before another car came up, and 
after some time was coupled to the disabled car and 
pushed it into the city. More than thirty business men, 
women, and girls were made a half-hour late at their 
work, and to workers who hold important positions a 
half-hour often means the loss of many dollars' worth of 
business. The world cannot wait for disabled cars and 
careless conductors. Of course, the conductor was re- 
ported to the company, which suspended him for three 
days, with loss of pay. 

There are few persons who can afford to let their care- 

162 



CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 163 

lessness cost them even twenty-five cents. Yet, if the 
truth were known, probably most families lose at least a 
dollar a week either through carelessness or through for- 
getfulness. One day after school a girl had wheeled her 
two-year-old brother out in the baby-carriage. When, 
at supper time, her mother asked if she had put the car- 
riage into the basement, she said she had not but would 
after supper. That night it rained, and the next morn- 
ing it was a dismayed girl who found the carriage soaked 
through. The cushions had to be recovered and the 
wicker top restained. Her forgetfulness cost her parents 
almost three dollars in money besides time and bother. 

"I wish I could earn as much as Mary Davenport/ ' 
said Elsie Parkhurst one day to a friend. "She must get 
at least five dollars a week more than I do, and I'm sure 
she doesn't work a bit harder." 

Both Mary Davenport and Elsie Parkhurst were 
stenographers who earned good salaries, but Elsie was 
wrong in thinking that her friend was paid more than 
she. Mary received only twelve dollars a week and 
Elsie fifteen, but Mary was careful, accurate, and never 
forgetful. Although Elsie did not realize it, she wasted 
nearly three dollars a week by her habits of carelessness. 
One morning when she reached her office she was an- 
noyed to find that she had either forgotten to bring a 
handkerchief from home or had lost it on the way. So 



164 STORIES OF THRIFT 

she sent the office boy to buy her a fifteen-cent one at 
the nearest dry-goods store, and gave him ten cents for 
his trouble. 

Another time, just before five o'clock, she discovered 
that she had forgotten to send out some important let- 
ters in which checks were to be enclosed. She stayed 
until six o'clock to write the letters, but did not know 
what to do about the checks, for only her employer and 
the head bookkeeper had the power to sign them. Fi- 
nally, she telephoned to the bookkeeper and asked if she 
could bring the checks out to his house for him to sign. 
The letters were mailed that evening, but it had cost 
Elsie ten cents extra for car-fare and twenty-five cents 
for her supper, which she had to eat at a restaurant in- 
stead of at home. 

At still another time Elsie accepted an invitation to 
dinner, but forgot all about it until the next day. She 
was so ashamed of her forgetfulness that during her noon 
hour she went to a florist's and bought a dollar's worth 
of rosebuds, which she sent, with a note of apology, to 
her friend. 

Several years passed and Mary was raised to twenty 
dollars a week, while Elsie was still receiving only fifteen. 
One day Elsie's employer told her that unless she could 
cure herself of carelessness, he would have to get another 
stenographer. 



CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 165 

"You are neat and obliging, and a good worker," he 
said; "but your carelessness costs us much time and 
money." 

Many a young person like Elsie fails to get more 
money in her envelope because of careless habits. No 
stenographer who was careless and forgetful ever became 
private secretary, and it is the ambition of every girl 
and boy who studies stenography some day to be a con- 
fidential secretary to an important business or profes- 
sional man. 

"My secretary never makes mistakes," said a man to 
a caller who was making a complaint. "If my secretary 
said that, it's so." 

"Ah," said the other, "you are fortunate. You must 
have to pay high for such a secretary." 

"I do. He has saved enough money out of his salary 
to buy his way into our firm." 

One day the manager of a large department store was 
showing a school principal over the different parts of 
the store. 

" I wish you would teach your boys and girls not to be 
careless and forgetful," said the manager. "We have a 
large number of bright grammar and high school gradu- 
ates in our store, but some of the very brightest ones 
fail to get promoted rapidly because they forget little 
things. 



166 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"See that boy at the silk counter?'' he said, point- 
ing to an eighteen-year-old boy who was showing goods 
to a woman. "Everybody likes him. He almost always 
makes a sale; in fact, he sells more goods than any other 
clerk at that counter, but he is an expensive clerk. We 
may have to let him go, although I mean to give him a 
fair chance." 

Seeing the principal's look of inquiry, the manager ex- 
plained: 

"Why, he makes this kind of mistakes: when goods 
are to be delivered, he often gets the address wrong, and 
there is hardly a day that he doesn't make a mistake in 
his cash slips. Then one time he sent out an order that 
was a yard short. It cost us a lot of time and bother to 
make the order right, for we were out of the goods when 
the customer reported the error, and had to send to the 
manufacturer for it. 

"We pay him ten dollars a week, but if he didn't make 
mistakes he'd be getting fifteen, and would stand a good 
chance of being head of his department. So you see his 
carelessness costs him at least two hundred and sixty 
dollars a year. Pretty expensive for a young man, isn't 
it?" 

The principal was so much impressed with the story 
that the next day when he paid his visit to the different 
rooms of his school he told about the expensive clerk. 



CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 167 

"Now, I want you all to test yourselves/' he said, "to 
find out how careless or forgetful you are. For one week 
I am going to ask you to write down on a slip of paper 
all the mistakes that you make and all the things that 
you forget. Hand the papers to your teacher and she 
will show them to me." 

At the end of the week when the principal visited the 
rooms he took two papers from his pocket. 

"I shall not tell you whose papers these are," he said, 
"but they are the two worst ones handed in." 

This was the first paper: 

Monday. Forgot to get mother a yeast-cake, so 
we had to buy an extra loaf of bread from the baker's. 

Tuesday. Mother let me wear her watch to school 
today. I hit it against the desk and it has stopped 
now. Father is going to take it to the jeweler. 

Wednesday. Mother wanted me to be excused 
this afternoon so that I could stay with the baby 
while she did some shopping. I lost the excuse, and 
didn't dare to ask Miss Adams. 

Thursday. I forgot to take my language exercise 
to school, but I wrote it out again before class. 

Friday. I can't find my pen. I think somebody 
borrowed it from my desk and forgot to return it. 

Saturday. Went to see Mabel Stevens this after- 



168 STORIES OF THRIFT 

noon. We made some fudge, but it wasn't very good 
because we burned it. 

Sunday. Left my handkerchief at Mabel's. 
Didn't go to Sunday-school after all. When I got 
all ready to go mother said there was a big paint 
spot on my dress. I got it on last week but forgot 
to tell mother about it. 

"Now," said the principal, "this pupil's negligence cost 
at least a dollar, and probably more. Jewelers seldom 
charge less than a dollar for repairing a watch, and a loaf 
of bread costs ten cents. Perhaps this is all the money 
that was wasted, but time was wasted and trouble was 
certainly caused by this girl. If she doesn't change her 
habits, she will have difficulty in getting a good position 
when she is out of school." 

The other paper was a boy's: 

Monday. Forgot my handkerchief, but one of 
the fellows cut his in two. I suppose I ought to give 
him one of mine to make up. 

Tuesday. Took my history home last night and 
forgot it this morning. Guess I got F in recitation — 
I didn't know the lesson very well. 

Wednesday. Can't find my bat. My sister says 
I left it out beside the road. If I did somebody has 
stolen it. I call that mean. 



CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 169 

Thursday. Forgot to go to the Chinaman s for 
father's collars. Father didn't like it very well. 

Friday. Remembered everything. 

Saturday. Had to saw wood this morning. I had 
forgotten to get the saw sharpened, but mother made 
me saw just the same. It took twice as long. 

As the principal folded these papers and slipped them 
into his pocket, he said: "I suppose this boy didn't waste 
much money, but the clerk that the manager pointed 
out to me was probably just such a boy as this. I think 
it would be a good idea for all of you to continue putting 
down on paper the things that you forget, and the mis- 
takes that you make. In this way you may cure your- 
selves." 

In the town of Oxford in a Western State there was 
one family that always seemed to be poor. The man 
earned good wages as foreman in a factory, and his wife 
did her own work. But they were often in debt and 
never seemed to get ahead. 

"It's no wonder," said one man, "they never plan, 
and they live in a happy-go-lucky fashion. One day his 
wife spoiled three loaves of bread because when she put 
them into the oven she failed to shut the door tight. 
She often leaves her washing out on the lines two or three 
days, and of course things blow away or are stolen. She 



170 STORIES OF THRIFT 

and her children have good enough clothes ; but there is 
usually a button gone or some lace torn." 

"Yes," said another, "they're not very business-like. 

Mr. M was just ordering his coal last week, and I 

asked him why he didn't do that the week before when 
coal was fifty cents a ton cheaper. 'Forgot all about it/ 
he said. The doctor told me their youngest boy wouldn't 
have had pneumonia if he hadn't got his feet soaking 
wet one day because he had no rubbers. Probably the 
only reason the little fellow didn't have rubbers was be- 
cause his mother had neglected to buy them. It's too 
bad. I'm sorry for the children." 

And yet this foreman and his wife were always talking 
of their "hard luck." 

Post-office clerks know something about mistakes due 
to carelessness. In one year out of the 2,500,000,000 
pieces of mail that the Chicago post-office handled, the 
clerks made only one mistake for each 27,130 pieces, 
while more than 10,000,000 mistakes were made by the 
people in addressing or stamping their mail. If a letter 
is worth writing, it is certainly worth the time and care 
necessary to address it correctly and put on it the right 
amount of postage. A letter may not cost more than 
three cents, but no one can afford to waste even this 
small amount. 

Another illustration of forgetfulness and carelessness 



CARELESSNESS AND NEGLECT 171 

is the "Lost" department of a street-car or railroad com- 
pany. One day, when a man inquired at a branch office 
of the electric-car company of a large city for a lost 
umbrella, the clerk said: " Shouldn't wonder if it was 
here. We've got a hundred and thirty umbrellas." 
And ; opening a closet, he showed the astonished man 
row after row of umbrellas of every shape and quality. 

" Queer what makes people so careless/' said the clerk, 
"and queerer still that so many never come to claim 
their property." 

"Well, what's their loss is your gain," returned the 
man. 

"Not a bit of it," replied the clerk. "We can't get 
much for this stuff even if we sell it, and, anyway, it 
wouldn't be enough to pay my salary and the rent of 
this room." 

Many a position has been lost, many a dollar has been 
wasted, many a heart has ached — all because of a little 
mistake or a careless moment. 



XVII 
LEAVING SCHOOL 

One day Miss Humphrey reported to the principal 
that Richard Davis had left school to go to work. 

"It bothers me/' she said ; "because I don't think it 
is at all necessary. Of course, his family aren't rich, but 
his father owns a small corner grocery store, and they 
seem to have plenty to eat and to wear. I talked with 
him, and he said he was tired of school and wanted to 
get a position. Shall I see his father about it?" 

"I'll think about it and let you know tomorrow/' was 
the principal's reply. 

Miss Humphrey was not the only person interested 
in Richard Davis's decision. Richard was quite the 
hero among a small group of boys, and that night one 
of his schoolmates, Charles Little, announced at the sup- 
per-table that he wanted to leave school and go to work. 

"What's that?" said his father, "are you beginning 
to know too much?" 

Charles was a little abashed, but he said: "I'm old 
enough to go to work, and I don't see the use in keeping 

172 



LEAVING SCHOOL 173 

on studying arithmetic and language. I know enough 
now to get a job." 

"Well, son, you'd make a great big mistake, if you quit 
school now. I suppose you know as well as I do that I'm 
a poor man, but perhaps you didn't know that it's just 
because when I was your age I had to leave school and 
go to work. I never had a chance to learn a trade or to 
do anything just right. In our shop the other day the 
boss's son started in to work his way up. I've been there 
for fifteen years and know something about the business, 
but that young fellow is going to beat us all out. And 
do you know why? It's because he's stayed in school 
and learned how to use his brains." 

Charles saw that it was useless to argue with his 
father, but he looked far from cheerful. 

"Of course, if you're too stupid to learn your lessons, 
I will take you out of school, but so far as I can make 
out you've got a fair amount of brains, and if I keep my 
job and health, you'll stay on at school a while longer." 

The next morning, after recess, the principal told Miss 
Humphrey that he wished to talk with her pupils about 
"jobs." This is what he said: 

"Yesterday I had occasion to go to the top floor of a 
nine-story building and on my way up chatted with the 
elevator boy. I asked him if he liked his work and he 
said no, he wanted to get into something else as soon as 



174 STORIES OF THRIFT 

possible. He is sixteen years old and this is his third job 
since leaving the grammar-school. He is paid six dollars 
a week, and there isn't any chance of his getting more. 
When I asked him what kind of work he was going to 
look for next he didn't seem to know. 

"After leaving the building, I stepped into an em- 
ployment bureau, and asked the manager what sort of 
position he could find for an elevator boy who didn't 
know how to do any other kind of work, and had never 
been graduated from the grammar-school. His reply 
wasn't very encouraging. He said: 

" c There is nothing better for him than the elevator. I 
don't see what these boys' parents are thinking of to send 
them to work before they have finished school. If I had 
a son who wouldn't stay in school, I'd put him out to 
learn a trade. He'd have to learn how to do some one 
thing thoroughly, whether it was clerking in a store or 
laying bricks. A boy who can't do something has wasted 
himself.' 

"Just think/' continued the principal, "what a waste 
of brains it is for a boy to do nothing nine hours every 
day, year in and year out, but stand in an elevator mov- 
ing the wheel or lever, and opening and shutting the 
door. It is much the same in a mill. The boy does some 
one simple thing all day long; the task may require 
quickness and accuracy, but that is all. 



LEAVING SCHOOL 175 

"After what the manager of the employment bureau 
told me I feel very much discouraged, for a great many 
of the boys here are planning to go to work next year. 

"When you get through the grammar-school you 
haven't had arithmetic enough to make you good book- 
keepers or cashiers, or enough English to make you use- 
ful stenographers or salesmen; and you don't know 
enough about any trade to earn your living at that. But 
every town and city must have plumbers, carpenters, 
cabinetmakers, wood-workers, machinists, tailors, paint- 
ers, paper-hangers, masons. Therefore, if you must 
leave before finishing the grammar-school, you should de- 
cide on some such occupation and either go to a school 
where you will learn the trade or find some employer who 
will agree to teach you and pay you a little while you 
are learning. 

"But remember that time spent in getting ready to 
earn your living is never wasted. Every lesson in geog- 
raphy, history, and the government of your country is 
training your brains and giving you ideas; every example 
in arithmetic that you solve alone helps you to be accu- 
rate and careful ; every composition that you write, every 
exercise in grammar that you do, makes it easier for you 
to speak well. 

"In a large department store a new clerk was recently 
advertised for. One of the boys who did not get the posi- 



176 STORIES OF THRIFT 

tion went to the store manager and said: 'I wish you'd 
tell me why I didn't get the job. I am honest, strong, 
quick, and like to work. My references are of the best.' 

"'Yes/ replied the manager, consulting his records. 
' The only thing against you is your English. Your gram- 
mar is very bad, and you use a great deal of slang. In 
our store we cater to only the best class of people, and it 
is a rule here that our clerks must be able to speak as 
well as our customers. I like your manner, and I think 
you would make a good salesman. When you have 
learned how to speak correctly, come back to me.' 

"This young man left school too soon, and instead of 
saving time he wasted it. 

"'The most pitiful thing to me/ said the manager of 
the employment bureau, 'is the large number of mar- 
ried men who are out of work so much of the time. And 
almost all of them never learned a trade or a business 
when they were boys. The only kind of work they can 
get is odd jobs that any one can do.' 

"All that I or your teachers can do for you," said the 
principal in concluding his talk, "is to urge you either to 
go on to the high school or to find some way of learning 
thoroughly a trade before you try to earn your living. 
If you and your parents are in doubt what you should 
do, then remain at school until you can decide. It is 
better to be in school learning something than to be run- 



LEAVING SCHOOL 177 

ning errands at three dollars a week and learning noth- 
ing. 

"Much that I have said to the boys," the principal 
explained, "applies to the girls also. Stay in school as 
long as you can, and whatever you do, don't waste your- 
selves. Either in school or at home, learn to mend, and 
sew, and cook, for these are things that all girls should 
know how to do well. I hope that each one of you will 
some day be in a home of your own, and when you are 
you will need to know dressmaking, cooking, and clean- 
ing. 

"If you want to be a stenographer, or a bookkeeper, 
or an office assistant, remember that every year you 
spend at school increasing your stock of information 
and your knowledge of English is not time wasted, but 
saved. 

"A man that I know conducts a typewriting bureau, 
in which he employs about fifty girls. One day I asked 
him how much he paid them. He amazed me by say- 
ing, 'I start most of my girls at three dollars a week.' 

"He saw my astonishment, and said: 

'" As a matter of fact, most of the girls who apply for 
positions aren't worth that. They have never been to 
high school; they can't spell; and it is utterly impos- 
sible for them to use correct English. Some one has to 
look over every letter they write. They can't be trusted 



178 STORIES OF THRIFT 

even to answer the telephone and take down messages. 
They don't know such simple words as practicable. I 
set them to copying at first, and one hour a day I have 
a class in English for them. You see I have to do what 
their teachers would have done if the girls had stayed 
in school longer. Occasionally a bright high-school girl, 
who has also spent a year in a business college, applies 
for a position, and I start her at eight dollars, advanc- 
ing her just as soon as she learns my business. I have 
several stenographers who are earning twenty dollars a 
week, but all of them are high-school graduates/ 

"It is the same with bookkeeping and office work. 
The grammar-school hasn't had time to teach you all 
that you need to know to be valuable in an office. There 
are some office positions that pay twelve, fifteen, or more 
dollars a week, but it is seldom that the girl who has 
gone no farther than the grammar-school ever gets these. 
The girls who are advanced the most rapidly are those 
who have had the best training. You will make a 
mistake if you do not spend all the time possible in 
school. 

"I do not mean to say that the boy who leaves school 
and goes to work at thirteen can never be a successful 
man. A really plucky boy who must go to work to help 
out at home can of course attend the evening school. 
But it takes many winters of evening-school work to 



LEAVING SCHOOL 179 

equal one year of regular day work at the high school or 
at the trade school. The evening school is a help, but it 
cannot take the place of a good day-school course. 

"I have asked at least twenty business men what 
chance boys or girls would have in their establishments 
if they had not been farther than the grammar-school. 
One man said: 'Why, we never expect anything from a 
boy unless he is at least a high-school graduate. And we 
prefer boys that have had some experience in addition 
to this/ 

"Another said: 'We never hire any boy or girl for any 
kind of position who cannot show a high-school diploma.' 

"All the men seemed to think that the grammar-school 
pupils would find it difficult to secure good positions. 

"The last question that I asked each of the twenty 
men was : ' So you think our boys and girls ought to stay 
in some kind of school until they are seventeen or 
eighteen years old?' 

"And the usual answer was: 'Yes, it would be time 
well spent.' 

"My advice is: Whatever you plan to do or to be, 
don't waste any of the years. You can never make up 
for lost time." 

It was six months after the principal gave this talk 
that one day Richard Davis and his father appeared at 
the principal's office. 



180 STORIES OF THRIFT 

" Richard is tired of working and wants to come back 
to school. Will you take him?" asked Mr. Davis. 

"That depends on Richard/' said the principal. "All 
we insist on is that he do his best in his studies. A dis- 
contented boy never gets much good from his school." 

"Well," said Mr. Davis, "I think Richard didn't 
know what he was getting into. You see I told him if he 
left school he would have to help me in the store, run- 
ning errands. Perhaps he thought I should be easy with 
him, but I said I would pay him what I should have to 
pay any other boy, and he would have to work just as 
hard as another boy. He had to be at the store at seven 
o'clock, for we sell milk, and many families depend on 
buying it from us for their breakfasts. Then, of course, 
Saturday afternoons and evenings are our busiest hours, 
so the only time off he had was Sundays and three eve- 
nings. Evenings he was too tired to do anything but 
go to bed." 

"Is it your idea, Mr. Davis," asked the principal, "to 
have Richard come back to school, or does he himself 
want to?" 

"It's this way. I told him I would give him five dol- 
lars a week when he had learned to make change right. 
But he is slow in multiplying fractions in his head. He 
makes many mistakes, and he decided that he'd better 
go back to school a while longer. So now I've said that 



LEAVING SCHOOL 181 

if he will keep on and go to the high school and take the 
business course, when he gets his diploma I'll make him 
my cashier and will start him at ten dollars a week. The 
cashier doesn't begin work until eight and has one after- 
noon off every week." 

"Well, I'm glad Richard isn't going to waste himself. 
I'll help him all I can/' was the principal's reply. 

And when, five years later, Richard finished the high 
school he said, to his father one night: "What a crazy 
boy I used to be. You ought to have whipped me when 
I tried to leave school. I don't know any too much now, 
but I'm sure it will be far easier for me to earn my liv- 
ing now than it would have been five years ago." 

There are many boys and girls who, like Richard, are 
eager to get to work, but it is always a mistake to leave 
school sooner than is necessary. 

A girl who did not like to study but loved to be with 
children, recently got a position as nursery governess to 
two children three and five years old. She herself was 
only fourteen, but she was not afraid of work and had a 
sweet, winning way with the children. One day the 
woman who employed her came to her and said: "I 
am sorry, my dear, but I'm afraid I shall have to find 
some one else to amuse the children. I haven't a bit of 
fault to find with what you do or the way that you do it, 
and the children love you dearly. But you constantly 



182 STORIES OF THRIFT 

use incorrect English and often mispronounce words. 
The children will surely imitate your mistakes, and it 
would take a great deal of time in later years to correct 
them. So I am afraid I must get some one who has had 
a better education." 

This girl was only one of many who lose their chance 
to be most useful and happy because they have left 
school too soon. 



XVIII 
IF YOU HAD A HUNDRED DOLLARS 

If you had a hundred dollars given you, what would 
you do with it ? This was the question that Miss Mur- 
ray asked her pupils in the seventh grade one afternoon. 
Everybody was eager to answer the question at once, 
but Miss Murray shook her head. 

"No, not now. I want each of you to think about this 
tonight. Talk it over with your friends and your family, 
and tomorrow I shall ask you to write a short composi- 
tion answering the question. Then we will have as many 
of the compositions read as time will permit. 

"I wish that before you decide on anything you would 
ask yourself two questions: 

"How can I make a hundred dollars go the- farthest? 

"How can I spend it so that some one besides myself 
will be benefited? 

"Remember that it is a selfish person who thinks only 
of himself when he has money to spend." 

The next day Miss Murray gave her room an hour in 
which to write the composition, and at noon she looked 

183 



184 STORIES OF THRIFT 

over the papers. She smiled over some and sighed over 
others. Several she selected to read to the class. Here 
are quotations from them: 

If I had a hundred dollars I should buy a high- 
priced phonograph and some good music records. 
Everybody ought to love music ; and I know that it 
would give our family lots of pleasure. I would 
keep the phonograph in the parlor and after supper 
father would read his paper ; mother would sew, and 
I would do the dishes, and we would all be listening 
to the music at the same time. This would make 
the time pass pleasantly and before I knew it the 
dishes would be done. I like quick music because 
it is so cheerful. 

"You did not tell us, Ella, why you would buy a 
phonograph. Do you think that you and your family 
would get more pleasure and benefit from this than from 
anything else? Is there nothing that you really need?" 

"No, Miss Murray/' answered the girl. 

Here one of the boys raised his hand and, at a nod 
from the teacher, said: "Wouldn't it be a waste of money 
to spend all of the hundred dollars that way? I know 
a man who paid only ten dollars for a phonograph, and 
it is fine." 



IF YOU HAD A HUNDRED DOLLARS 185 

Miss Murray said she thought that if a person intended 
to buy a phonograph it was wise not to get a cheap one. 
" If you are going to have music in your home you want 
it to be as beautiful as possible. And a cheap phono- 
graph really makes dreadful music. I always think of 
a good phonograph as a luxury, however, and I shouldn't 
want to buy one for my home unless I was sure that it 
would give more pleasure than anything else." 

"When mother w T as a girl she used to play on the 
violin," said Ella. "She and father both love music, 
but we can't afford a piano, and mother says her fingers 
aren't limber enough to play on the violin even if she 
had time to practise. Once father said it would be al- 
most as good as going to the real grand opera to have a 
sweet-toned phonograph." 

"Ella has made a wise choice, after all," said Miss 
Murray, "but probably it would be foolish for the rest 
of us to spend our money that way. I hope none of you 
are like a woman that I once knew, who had to buy 
whatever her neighbors bought, whether she needed it 
or really wanted it. She even bought a piano, although 
she had no children, and neither she nor her husband 
could play. I think it would be very stupid for any- 
body to buy any kind of musical instrument just to 
entertain his friends, for many people do not like 
music." 



186 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Miss Murray then read this paragraph from another 
composition : 

If I had a hundred dollars that I could spend as 
I liked, I should buy a two-year-old Jersey cow. 
This would be better than putting the money in the 
bank. The bank would pay me only four dollars a 
year, but I could make thirty dollars a year on the 
cow by turning the milk into butter and selling that. 
I could take care of her myself. 

This composition was written by a boy who lived sev- 
eral miles from town. He drove in every morning with 
his father, who brought milk to the railroad for ship- 
ment. The boys were eager to ask Phil questions, so 
Miss Murray gave them permission. 

"What should you do with the thirty dollars?" one 
boy asked. 

"I should put it into the bank, and keep it until I 
had saved enough to buy another cow. With two cows 
I could make sixty dollars a year." 

"What should you do with the money in the bank?" 
asked another boy. 

"Father wants me to go to the agricultural college 
some day. He says he never had a chance to learn to 
do things right, and he wants me to be a better farmer 
than he has been." 



IF YOU HAD A HUNDRED DOLLARS 187 

"I should think you would want to save your money," 
said one boy, "so that you could go to the city to live. 
Farmers are always poor, and they don't have any fun." 

Here Miss Murray interrupted. 

"I'm afraid you are only showing your ignorance, 
Albert. Farming is as much of a science as medicine 
or law, and Phil has the right idea. Some of the happiest 
and most prosperous people that I know are farmers. 
It is only the lazy farmer, or one who has not studied 
enough, who is poor. We will talk about farming some 
other time, but now I want you to listen to this com- 
position." And Miss Murray read: 

If I had a hundred dollars I should take my sister 
Mary to the city to see a famous doctor, who could 
cure her. While we were there we would go to the 
museum and see the stuffed animals and the glass 
flowers. We would go to a big restaurant and have 
some ice-cream and chocolate layer-cake. What 
money was left I should put into the bank. 

"Poor Jack," Miss Murray had said to herself, when 
she first read this composition, "he certainly thinks a 
great deal of his sister, but I'm afraid he wouldn't be a 
wise spender." 

After she had read his composition to the class, Miss 
Murray said: "Please tell us, Jack, why you would take 



188 STORIES OF THRIFT 

your sister to a city doctor? Didn't you know that 
good old Doctor Stevens is one of the best doctors in this 
part of the country?' 7 

"Hike Doctor Stevens," said Jack quietly, "but he 
doesn't cure Mary. He only tells her to drink milk, 
eat eggs, and stay out-of-doors." 

"Even a city doctor might say the same thing, Jack. 
Does Mary stay out in the air most of the time?" 

"She says there is nothing to do outdoors. She gets 
tired and would rather stay in the house," replied the 
boy. 

Miss Murray explained that when people had lung 
trouble they needed all the fresh air they could get. 
Medicines and city doctors could not help them. "If I 
were in Jack's place and had a hundred dollars, I should 
build a little piazza out of Mary's room, where she could 
sit during the day and sleep at night. Some people call 
these sleeping-porches. Even perfectly well persons 
often sleep out-of-doors, because it makes them feel so 
much better." 

The last composition that Miss Murray read was 
written by Elsie Rider. 

I have never seen the ocean, and I haven't seen 
my grandmother since I was five years old, so I 
should spend my hundred dollars in going with my 



IF YOU HAD A HUNDRED DOLLARS 189 

mother to visit her. She lives near the ocean ; and 
from the bedroom that my mother slept in when she 
was a girl you can see the ships sailing. Sometimes 
mother says that it would rest her five years' worth 
if she could sleep in her old room once more. If we 
went it would take eight hours, and we should have 
to eat our supper in the dining-car. I should pay 
for the supper out of the hundred dollars. 

One of the boys said that he thought it was a needless 
expense for people to go on visits, but Miss Murray agreed 
with Elsie that it would give so much pleasure to both 
the grandmother and the mother that Elsie would feel 
well paid for her effort. 

"Grandmothers are the nicest persons in the world," 
said Miss Murray. "I wouldn't take back the visits 
that I made my grandmother when I was a girl for a 
good many hundreds of dollars. But it probably would 
not take all of the money to make that trip, Elsie. What 
would you do with the rest of it ? " 

Elsie showed what a sympathetic heart she had by 
her answer: "I'd buy father an overcoat and a set of 
Dickens. He needs an overcoat, and he wants the books. 
He is always buying lovely things for mother and me." 

"Miss Murray," asked a boy, "don't you think it is 
all right to spend money on yourself?" 



190 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"Certainly; but to spend all of a hundred dollars on 
yourself when the other members of your family had 
none to spend would certainly be selfish. The least that 
anybody can do is to share his pleasure with some one 
else. Otherwise money isn't being made to accomplish 
as much as it might." 

Just before school closed Miss Murray said that, while 
none of them had a hundred dollars, they could all begin 
to save and plan so that some day they could do the 
thing that they wanted to do now. 

That night Frank Parsons went into the kitchen, where 
his mother was making jelly. 

" Mother, if some rich man died and left you a hun- 
dred dollars, what should you buy?" 

"It's hard to say, Frank. We need so many things." 

Frank looked surprised. He had supposed that he 
was the only person in the family who had many wants. 
When he explained the composition that he had had to 
write at school, his mother asked what he had said. 

"Why, I said I should build a shed for a workshop, 
and buy a kit of tools." 

"That was sensible, I am sure," his mother replied. 

For a long time the two talked about the many possi- 
ble ways of spending a hundred dollars. When Mr. Par- 
sons heard the discussion, he said: "I think it wouldn't 
be a bad plan for us to make a list of the things we 



IF YOU HAD A HUNDRED DOLLARS 191 

should really buy if we had that much extra money, 
and from time to time, as we save a little, we can get 
some of them." 

It took nearly a week to make out a list that had the 
approval of the whole family. Many items that were 
put down first were finally crossed out altogether. Per- 
haps you will be interested to see part of the list. Re- 
member that the plan was to get first what was most 
needed. 

1. $30.00 for a new kitchen stove. (The one they 
had was old and almost worn out. It burned twice 
as much fuel as a good stove should. The family 
calculated that in two years the new stove would 
pay for itself.) 

2. $10.00 for a kit of tools. (At first the family 
thought there were other things that ought to be 
bought before these, but Mr. Parsons said that Frank 
would be learning something useful, and therefore 
the money would be well spent. But the under- 
standing was that if Frank lost interest in the tools 
and did not use them regularly they should be sold 
and the money turned into the household account. 
A part of the basement was to be used for a work- 
shop.) 

3. $20.00 for an easy, upholstered chair for the 



192 STORIES OF THRIFT 

living-room. (The family had plenty of chairs, but 
there were only two that anybody really enjoyed 
sitting in. So it was decided that it would be sen- 
sible to get a well-made chair that had good springs, 
and was covered with simple, durable tapestry. 
Frank was surprised that one chair should cost so 
much. "It will last us twenty years," his father 
explained.) 

4. $6.00 for replating a dozen knives and forks. 
(This was much cheaper than buying new ones.) 

5. $4.00 for the best quality cotton cloth to make 
sheets and pillow-cases. 

6. $4.00 for a pair of rubber boots for Frank. 

7. $4.00 for material for a raincoat for Frank's 
sister. 

8. $8.00 for a large dictionary. (Frank knew 
where they could buy a large, second-hand dictionary 
in excellent condition at that price; and every mem- 
ber of the family felt the need of such a book.) 



XIX 

CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 

Everybody knows that health, comfort, and even 
wealth depend a great deal on cleanliness. In most 
sections of the country it is the custom to clean house 
every spring and fall. The carpets are taken up and 
beaten; the muslin and lace curtains are washed and 
ironed; the woodwork of the doors, windows, mopboards, 
and floors is scrubbed with soap and water; ceilings are 
whitewashed; blankets, comforters, dresses, furs, etc., 
are taken out of closets and drawers and hung out to 
air, and those not needed at once are carefully packed 
away with lavender or camphor to keep out moths. 

When people speak of the danger of the slums, they 
are not thinking so much of the poverty of the men, 
women, and children who live in these crowded sections 
as of the dirty, dark houses, the bad-smelling alleys, and 
the wretched, soiled clothing. Probably if you should tell 
a man who lives in the midst of dirt and discouragement 
that he will never have a chance of getting enough money 
to live on comfortably unless he cleans up himself, his 
children, and his house, he would laugh in your face. 

193 



194 STORIES OF THRIFT 

He would insist that all he needed was a steady job with 
good pay, and he would keep his family looking as well 
as any other man's. 

But, although such a man as this does not realize it, 
dirt is expensive. The oil lamp or stove that explodes 
is almost always one that has not been kept clean. Bits 
of oil, lint, and dust collect around the burner and offer 
the means for an explosion. Most of the fires that burn 
dwellings to the ground start in chimneys that are choked 
with soot. A chimney that is cleaned and inspected 
once a year will probably never be the cause of a dis- 
astrous fire. 

Dirt is said to have been responsible for the great fire 
which in 1908 almost wiped out the city of Chelsea, 
Massachusetts. The flames started in some rubbish in 
an old wooden building — according to one report it was 
in a ragpicker's shed. But even a ragpicker could keep 
the building in which he stored his rags clean. There 
was really no excuse for this terrible fire that cost mil- 
lions of dollars and great misery to hundreds of people. 

Many a farmer owes his "hard luck," as he calls it, 
to his dirty barns, sheds, and hen-houses. Horses which 
have to stand in stalls that are not thoroughly cleaned 
every day get diseases which are expensive to cure, for 
veterinary fees are large. Sick horses mean not only 
doctor's fees, but loss of services to the farmer. Many 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 195 

farmers ; however, will not believe this. In a certain 
country district a wealthy city man bought a large 
farm, and built the finest barn that could be devised. 
The floors were of cement, the woodwork was white- 
washed, and everything possible was done to make the 
building one that could be kept perfectly clean. All his 
neighbors laughed among themselves at the " new- 
fangled" barn. But the city man knew what he was 
about. His horses and cattle were the healthiest and 
most profitable in the town, and it took fewer men to 
do the work than on some of the smaller farms run in 
the old-fashioned way. He proved that it pays to keep 
clean. 

One of the most successful restaurants in a certain 
large city makes a special point of cleanliness. Although 
it is situated in a crowded business section where the air 
is full of soot and dust, and although several thousand 
people eat there every day, it has the appearance of whole- 
some cleanliness. Every inch of the floor, woodwork, 
counters, brass, and nickel is thoroughly washed and 
polished once a day, and the floors and counters several 
times. The waitresses never wear waists or aprons 
that show any sign of dirt. The owner prides himself 
that only perfectly clean, pure food is served, and that 
the kitchen and serving-rooms are as neat as is humanly 
possible to make them. Probably this restaurant makes 



196 STORIES OF THRIFT 

more money for its owner than any other in the city, 
and it is chiefly because of its motto: "Be clean." 

If restaurant keepers find that it puts dollars in their 
pockets to have food, dishes, stoves, floors, and windows 
clean, surely housekeepers need to keep their houses 
clean. "But," said one woman, "in these days of dust 
and dirt, it would take me every minute of the day to 
keep my house really clean. I can't afford to hire any 
one to help me, and so I do the best I can alone, but there 
is plenty of dust around all the time." 

This woman is right in saying that it is impossible 
for a person to keep a house perfectly clean. All that 
anybody can hope to do is to have the rooms whole- 
some and healthfully clean. To do this does not require 
ceaseless work, but careful planning. 

If a woman has to do her own washing, ironing, and 
cleaning, with only the help of her family, she is very 
foolish if she does not make the work as easy as possible. 
She should not fill her house with things that gather 
dust and germs. 

One of the hardest rooms in the house to keep clean 
is the bedroom, especially if it has a carpet on the floor, 
draperies at the windows, and knickknacks scattered 
over walls, bureau, and stand. But the need of cleanli- 
ness is especially great in the bedroom, and it is less ex- 
pensive to keep it clean than to let dust and dirt accumu- 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 197 

late. It is a good rule to have as few articles as possible 
in a bedroom, and only such as can be easily cleaned. 

The bedstead that is most serviceable is one made of 
iron and painted white. This can be thoroughly washed 
with hot water and soap as often as necessary, and is 
much better than those advertised by some stores as 
brass beds. The latter cost more, and usually are not 
brass at all, but are made of iron with a thin coating 
of brass, which wears off in a short time. Beds made of 
wood are often very beautiful, but they require much 
time to keep them clean and well polished. It is easy 
for insects to burrow into the corners and soft parts of 
the wood, and make their nests there. To get rid of 
bedbugs or any other kind of insect is costly, both in 
time and in money. If a family wants always to be 
free from them, it should have only iron beds, and should 
wash these thoroughly. 

It is often more difficult to keep a mattress clean and 
healthy than the bedstead, for one cannot scour a mat- 
tress with soap and water. In the first place the mattress 
must be of fair quality; a sensible woman will not buy 
the cheapest one that she can find, for this may last only 
half as long as one that costs a few dollars more. A 
person should buy articles like mattresses only at reliable 
stores, where the clerks will show any customer samples 
of the filling of each kind. A good mattress with proper 



198 STORIES OF THRIFT 

care will last many years. Once in two weeks, at least, 
all the bedding, sheets, blankets, pillows, and mattresses 
should be taken out-of-doors for a thorough airing in the 
sun. 

One day two women were talking about a neighbor. 

"She's all the time trying to show off/' said one. 
"Every week she spreads all her blankets, puffs, and mat- 
tresses out on her line to let us know how expensive her 
things are." 

"Yes," said the other woman, "and more than that, 
she's always hanging out her furs and silk dresses. She 
must be terribly proud." 

These women were all wrong in their judgment. The 
woman who filled her lines once a week with the contents 
of her bedroom was not proud, but sensible, for her 
things would keep clean and last longer than theirs. 

When the mattress has been aired it should be thor- 
oughly brushed with a stout whisk-broom that can get 
into all the corners. It is the dusty corners of carpets, 
mattresses, and closets that breed insects and decay. 
In hot weather everything soils more quickly than in 
cool weather, and this is true of mattresses, although 
many families do not seem to realize it. Even if a per- 
son takes a sponge bath every night, as he should, on 
very hot nights there will be some perspiration from the 
body which is absorbed by the night garments and sheets, 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 199 

and often by the mattress covering. Sheets and night 
garments are washed every week, but it is difficult to 
clean mattresses. In warm weather, therefore, it is sen- 
sible to put an extra sheet over the mattress, as a means 
of protection. 

When cold weather comes every woman looks over her 
supply of warm bed coverings to see if she has enough 
to keep her family comfortable. One woman, after 
examining her stock, took ten dollars and went to a 
large department store to buy three blankets. Her 
thirteen-year old daughter Eleanor accompanied her. 
While the salesman was showing her mother the best 
three-dollar blankets, Eleanor espied some pretty puffs. 

"Oh, mother/ 7 she urged, "please look at these before 
you buy the blankets. I should like to have this one 
with pink roses for my bed. Sarah Johnson has one 
with violets on it. She folds it up and keeps it at the 
foot of the bed, and uses it only on very cold nights. 
Oh, please!" 

Mrs. McCloud seemed to like the puffs as well as her 
daughter, and asked the clerk the prices. The ones 
that Eleanor had been looking at were only two dollars. 
The clerk tried to explain that the blankets would be 
much more serviceable, but Mrs. McCloud was think- 
ing that three puffs at two dollars would cost only six 
dollars, while three blankets at three dollars would leave 



200 STORIES OF THRIFT 

her only one dollar out of her ten. And Eleanor was 
thinking of the pink roses. So the puffs were bought. 

That night when Mr. and Mrs. McCloud and Eleanor 
were eating supper, the expressman brought to the door 
a bulky package. 

"What's that?" asked Mr. McCloud, as Eleanor left 
her half-finished supper and began excitedly to cut the 
cords. 

"You know we needed some new blankets/' explained 
Mrs. McCloud. "I bought puffs instead and saved three 
dollars." 

"See, isn't this beautiful?" exclaimed Eleanor, as she 
trailed the pink rose-patterned puff over the floor. 

"H'm!" said Mr. McCloud, looking thoughtful. 
"Puff? What's that, one of those new-fangled bed 
quilts? Let's, feel of it." 

"It's silk," said Eleanor eagerly, "and the pink roses 
just match my wall-paper." 

"Silk!" said Mr. McCloud disgustedly; "the covering 
is only cheap cotton with a glaze on it, and as near as 
I can tell by the feeling, it's filled with cotton, and not 
any too much of that." 

"Yes, but most of the blankets are part cotton," said 
Mrs. McCloud reassuringly. 

"Well, I think you and Eleanor have wasted your six 
dollars. These things will never keep us warm. You 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 201 

forgot that when you pay three dollars for a blanket 
you are getting a pair of them — two thicknesses — and one 
thickness is a good deal warmer than one of these flimsy 
things. And not only that/' continued Mr. McCloud, 
"but how long do you think one of these puffs will last? 
You can't wash it; the cotton would all lump up, and if 
you sent it to a cleanser you would have to pay seventy- 
five cents or a dollar, and then it wouldn't look very 
well. It is only the nicest puffs made of wool or down 
that are worth sending to the cleanser. A blanket can 
be washed clean with soap and water by anybody that 
is strong." 

"I never thought about the washing/' said Mrs. 
McCloud weakly. 

"Well, there's an old cotton puff packed away some- 
where in the attic," said Mr. McCloud. . "Try washing 
that and see how you come out." 

So, after the supper dishes were washed, Mrs. McCloud 
and Eleanor took the old puff down into the basement 
and washed it carefully in warm soap and water. When 
it was wrung out, even Eleanor had to laugh, although 
her throat was full of lumps at the thought of giving up 
her beautiful puff. The clean puff looked like a cobbled 
pavement. 

"Before I was married, Eleanor," explained her 
father, "I used to work in a dry-goods store, and I know 



202 STORIES OF THRIFT 

something about blankets and puffs. A puff that is 
worth buying will cost you about ten dollars, and we 
can't afford that. You'll have to change these for the 
three-dollar blankets, I think." 

There are many people like Eleanor and her mother 
who spend their money thoughtlessly for articles that 
are comparatively cheap, but wiil prove expensive in the 
end. It pays to buy sheets of good quality and as good 
blankets as one can afford, and simple white spreads. 
Colored bedspreads, or spreads with colored borders, 
cannot be cleaned easily, and are therefore more ex- 
pensive. Sheets must be washed every week or they will 
get so soiled that they will tear apart readily. 

Next to the bed, the closets and bureau drawers are 
the parts of a bedroom most difficult to keep clean. 
But dirt in closets means moths and carpet-bugs, and no 
family is so rich that it can afford to furnish good clothes 
for these insects to feed on. To keep out moths and 
other insects, closets and drawers must be kept per- 
fectly clean. All woollen articles must either be hung 
in a clean closet and taken outdoors to be thoroughly 
brushed every week or be cleaned and then folded up 
with moth balls, wrapped in newspapers, and shut away 
in drawers, trunks, or boxes that are free from moths. 

The bedroom floors that are easiest to clean are either 
painted or made of hardwood, with light-weight rugs 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 203 

that can be taken outdoors and shaken. Curtain drap- 
eries make a bedroom look so homelike that it would not 
be wise to suggest going without them, but the stores 
are full of curtain materials that are not worth carrying 
home. Only a washable material should be bought, 
and this means muslins, scrims, or crepes of good qual- 
ity. Fancy edges and colored borders may look pretty 
at first, but they will not wear well, and the colors will 
fade or "run" when washed. 

White, cream, and ecru are better for curtains than 
other colors, for they look as well after they are laundered 
as before. One high-priced summer hotel which uses 
white scrim for all its bedroom windows has not had to 
buy new material for five years. On the other hand, a 
woman who bought some cream-colored lacey curtains 
with a blue border had to throw them away before the 
end of a year. They had been so torn and stretched 
in washing that there was no shape to them, and the 
colored border had faded to an ugly gray. 

Next to the bedrooms the part of the house that most 
needs attention is the kitchen and pantry. Probably 
the grocer's bill is the largest one of all, and it is neces- 
sary not to let any food go to waste or to be spoiled 
through lack of attention to cleanliness. Refrigerators, 
pantry shelves, and all places where food is kept must 
be absolutely clean. If a partly decayed tomato or a 



204 STORIES OF THRIFT 

moldy piece of cheese is overlooked in the corner of a 
refrigerator, it may spoil every other bit of food in it*. 

One of the best housekeepers in a small town had the 
reputation of being able to make a cent go farther than 
anybody else. This is her own explanation of the way 
she did it. 

"When we were first married John and I went to visit 
his city cousin, who is a rich doctor. One night the 
doctor took us to dinner at one of the biggest hotels that 
I ever saw in my life. Every table had roses on it, and 
the carpets were just like meadow grass — they were so 
soft. All the lights looked like peach-colored flowers. 
After dinner what did John's cousin do, but get the hotel 
clerk to have somebody show us through the basements 
where all the cooking and serving are done. I could 
hardly believe my eyes, everything was so clean. The 
steward told us that they didn't have a thing in the 
kitchen, storerooms, or serving-rooms that couldn't be 
scrubbed clean with hot soap and water. The pans 
shone like a pond in the sunshine, and all the kettles 
were made of copper and glistened like my grandmother's 
teapot that I keep on the sideboard. The floor looked 
as if it were made of marble and so did the refrigerators. 
Honestly, I couldn't see a speck of dirt anywhere. 

"'It must cost very much to keep everything looking 
so fine/ I said. 



CLEANLINESS AND THRIFT 205 

"'Oh, no,' replied the steward. 'It would cost us 
more if we didn't keep things like this/ 

"I suppose my face looked like a question-mark, for 
he went on to explain: 

"'We have only the first quality of everything here — 
cream, eggs, meat, vegetables, pastries, and we can't 
afford to have dirt around. A dirty kitchen costs more 
than a clean one. There are harmful germs in all dust 
and dirt. The moment that these germs come in contact 
with food, the food begins to spoil, and people will not 
pay high prices for what is the least bit tainted.' 

"Well, what that steward said, and what I saw, set 
me to thinking, and when I got home my mind was made 
up that dirt should never spoil any of my food. 

"Once a week I scour my refrigerator with hot soap and 
water, and leave it open to the fresh air until it is thoro- 
ughly dry. I keep milk, butter, and liquid things carefully 
covered so that they cannot absorb anything harmful. 

"My bread and cake jars I scald out once a week and 
put in the sun or out-of-doors to dry; this means that I 
never have any moldy bread to throw away as I used to. 
Dry pieces of bread or cake I set in the oven a few min- 
utes to brown, then put away in a clean tin pail with a 
tight cover, to use later for puddings. 

"I often used to have vegetables and fruit spoil on 
my hands. This was expensive, of course, but I always 



206 STORIES OF THRIFT 

thought that a certain amount of waste was necessary. 
Now I know better. Just as soon as the grocery boy 
delivers my purchases I examine everything. If I find 
any spoiled fruits or vegetables, I make the boy take 
them back. The apples, tomatoes, and the like that 
have soft parts or look dead ripe, I cook up at once to 
prevent their spoiling. I sort over my potatoes, apples, 
onions, and other vegetables every few days to make 
sure that none of them are decaying. Once I shouldn't 
have thought of such a thing, but now I see that the 
boxes and baskets that I keep my vegetables in are al- 
ways clean. 

"The greatest trials of all my housekeeping experi- 
ence were water-bugs and red ants. I knew that if bits 
of food were left around the ants would appear, and so I 
scoured my shelves until they were perfectly clean. I 
found that the sink and the sink closet must be cared for 
as thoroughly as the pantry, so I filled all the cracks and 
crevices with putty and painted the floor and the sides 
of the closet white so that no dirt should escape me, and 
finally the water-bugs disappeared. 

" The first year after my visit to the city hotel I saved 
fifty dollars by being cleaner and more careful." 

What this woman did was worth while, but she is only 
one of the many who have proved that cleanliness always 
pays, whether at school, at home, or at work. 



XX 

OWNING A HOME 

" Somebody's bought the lot at the end of the street, 
I guess/' said Frank Lansing one night at supper. "Any- 
way, the sign For Sale has been taken down. I suppose 
now we can't play football there any more." 

"Why, yes, you can for the present," said his father. 

At the questioning look in Frank's face, Mr. Lansing 
said: "I've just bought that lot, and until I get around 
to build, you boys may have all the fun on it that you 
please." 

Frank looked as if he couldn't believe his ears. 

"Why, I thought we were poor!" he exclaimed at 
last. 

Mrs. Lansing answered him by saying: "It depends 
upon what you mean by being poor. We certainly aren't 
rich." 

"Yes, but I thought it took a great deal of money to 
build a house, more than to buy an automobile, and when 
I asked father if we couldn't have an automobile he said 
those were only for folks much better off than we were." 

"Oh, but I think it would be just beautiful to own 

207 



208 STORIES OF THRIFT 

the house we live in!" broke in Frank's sister, Miriam. 
"Can we have plate-glass windows?" 

"Both of you are old enough to understand something 
about our family finances," said Mr. Lansing, taking 
out his memorandum-book, "so I am going to explain 
about the house." 

"I don't believe Miriam even knows what finances 
means," remarked Frank ungraciously. 

"Doesn't it have something to do with money?" she 
asked. 

"Yes," said her father, "and unless all the members 
of a family understand how money should be saved and 
spent, they are likely always to be poor. Now, this is 
how rich and how poor we are," and Mr. Lansing spoke 
slowly : 

1. We have no debts. 

"That doesn't mean anything, does it?" interrupted 
Frank. 

"It certainly does. A good many men who own auto- 
mobiles and wear finer clothes than we do, owe so much 
money that if they were to pay all their debts they 
wouldn't have a cent left. You would be surprised if 
you knew how many families have gone into debt just to 
buy an automobile. By keeping our bills paid promptly, 
we have the reputation among the business men in town 



OWNING A HOME 209 

of being reliable people. A poor man whose credit is 
good is really richer than a man who has fine things but 
is deeply in debt and distrusted by everybody. Often a 
poor man can borrow money when a supposedly rich 
man cannot. 
"But to go on: 

2. I have five hundred dollars in the savings-bank. 
The bank pays four per cent interest, so that this 
money earns me twenty dollars a year. 

3. We own all the furnishings in this house, and 
most of them are of good quality and will last us 
many years. 

4. I have just bought and paid eight hundred 
dollars for the lot at the end of the street. 

5. I have a good and, so far as I know, a steady 
position, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars a 
year. By being careful and thrifty, I think we can 
live on nine hundred dollars until Frank is through 
the high school. 

6. We are all in good health. 

7. I have my life insured for three thousand dol- 
lars. 

"Now it seems to me that we aren't exactly poor, and 
if we always spend our money wisely we need never be." 



210 STORIES OF THRIFT 

"But where's the money to build a house?" asked 
Frank. "It takes about five hundred dollars just to build 
a fireproof automobile garage, so I should think it would 
take a great deal more for a house to live in." 

"Yes, it will cost at least three thousand dollars to 
build us a good, plain, substantial house." 

Frank looked a little woe-begone. He was thinking 
that it would take many years for his father to save that 
amount of money, and he could not see how they would 
ever get an automobile. 

But as his father went on to explain his plan, Frank 
became interested in spite of himself. 

Mr. Lansing said that he not only put money into the 
savings-bank but into a co-operative bank as well, and 
he explained that this co-operative bank would lend him 
money with which to build. 

"Can anybody get money that way?" asked Miriam. 

"No, a person can't borrow from one of these banks 
unless he first has a little property, and is also a share- 
holder in the bank. I now own a house lot, and I am a 
shareholder because every month I deposit ten dollars 
in the bank. Even if I put in only one dollar a month I 
should be a shareholder. If they will lend me the money 
necessary to build a house, I shall pay it back in monthly 
instalments, which will be only a little more than we 
now spend for rent. By the time you are ready for col- 



OWNING A HOME 211 

lege the house will be paid for, if nothing unfortunate 
happens." 

It was evidently this last remark that stayed in 
Frank's mind, for the next morning he asked his mother 
how he could go to college if it took all his father's 
money to pay for the house. 

"When the house is paid for there will be no rent to 
pay, only the taxes, insurance, and repairs. So the money 
that is now going for rent can help toward your college 
bills. Then, too, at just about that time your father 
will get three thousand dollars from his life insurance. " 

"From his life insurance?" echoed Frank. "Will he 
be dead then?" 

"No, indeed, some people take out the kind of life 
insurance that yields money only when the person who 
is insured dies. Then the money goes to the family. 
But your father's is the kind which is paid to him if he 
is still alive at a certain time." 

"We had something about life insurance in arith- 
metic the other day," remarked Frank, "but I didn't 
understand it very well." 

The next day at the morning recess Frank did some- 
thing so unusual that his teacher, Miss Allison, inquired 
if he were ill. He stayed at his desk figuring earnestly 
over some examples in insurance and in partial pay- 
ments. 



212 STORIES OF THRIFT 

Frank proudly confided to Miss Allison that his father 
was going to build a house, and Miriam had already 
told her chum, so that in a few days all their friends 
knew of the event. 

"0, Frank," said Eben Jones, as he overtook him on 
the way home, "we're buying the house we live in. 
That's almost as good as building one, isn't it?" 

"How do you buy it?" asked Frank. "Do you pay 
the co-operative bank every month?" 

"No, we pay the man who owns it. Father gave him 
five hundred dollars at first and pays him twenty-five 
dollars a month. I tell you we have to be good savers at 
our house. I haven't had a new suit for two years. 
Look at the back of this coat; you can see your face in 
it, can't you?" 

Frank asked Eben to go home with him, and over in 
the empty lot that Mr. Emerson had just bought, the 
two boys discussed houses as earnestly as if they were 
already property-owners. 

Each member of the Lansing family started in at once 
to keep what they called a Savings Memorandum-Book. 
Each person put down every time he had saved or earned 
any money, with the date. Miriam and Frank tried to 
outdo each other in making the most suggestions as to 
ways of saving. 

More than once Mrs. Lansing had been afraid that 



OWNING A HOME 213 

Frank was inclined to be lazy, but there were now no 
indications of this. Just the thought that he was help- 
ing save for the house seemed to increase his self-respect. 
All his spending-money he carefully hoarded. 

When Mr. Lansing saw how genuinely interested both 
Frank and Miriam were in the house, he took pains to 
tell them about his talks with the builders and archi- 
tects. One Saturday afternoon he took Frank to the 
architect's office, where they saw the first plans. 

"Father," said Frank, on their way home, "those men 
treated you just as respectfully as if you were rich. Do 
you suppose they think you have plenty of money, 
enough to build the house and more besides?" 

"No," replied Mr. Lansing, "but the moment a per- 
son buys or builds a house he is an important person 
in the eyes of business men. To own a house means 
that you have money to invest, and that you know how 
to spend wisely. Tonight after supper, make out a list 
of all the men in this town that you think own their 
houses, and see if they are not recognized as prominent, 
successful men." 

After supper Frank took pencil and paper and started 
his list. When he showed it to his father, he said: "I 
can't find out who own their houses, but I have written 
down the names of the men that I think are successful. 
Can't you tell me which ones own their houses?" 



214 STORIES OF THRIFT 

So Frank and his father went over the list together. 
They found only two names that did not belong on it. 

"No, Frank, Mr. Saywood and John Brooks are both 
large spenders, and do a great deal of talking, but they 
own no property and are usually in debt. In five years' 
time I think you won't hear anything from them." 

The building of the Lansing house was the beginning 
of better days for the whole family. Frank studied and 
worked as he never had before. He was as proud of his 
attic gymnasium and of his clean cellar as Miriam was 
of her big bedroom, with its window-seat and its closet 
door with a mirror built into it. Frank was given one 
of the attic rooms for his gymnasium on condition that 
he take all the care of the cellar, and keep it neat and 
orderly. Every new friend that Frank made had to in- 
spect the cellar, its clean-swept cement floor, the neatly 
arranged ash-barrels, the piles of newspapers tied together 
ready for the ragman, the preserve-closet, and the home- 
made carpenter's bench. And Miriam's pride was her 
bedroom and the bathroom, both of which it was her 
work to keep clean and in order. 

"Mother says," she explained to one friend, "that I 
must keep these rooms so that a guest could be shown 
either room at any time." 

"The way to appreciate your home," said Mrs. Lan- 
sing to her husband one day, "is to own it. I get more 



OWNING A HOME 215 

pleasure out of saving to pay for this than I ever supposed 
possible. Every time I have been calling or shopping 
and get back home, I say to myself : ' It is ours ! It is 
'ours!' I feel proud of you and the children to think 
that we could do it." 



XXI 

HOW A NATION HELPS TO SAVE 

One of the most interesting gifts of money made in 
recent years is that of $225,000 by the Russell Sage 
Foundation, to buy a refuge for migratory birds. Many 
large cities have homes for friendless cats and dogs, 
but this is the first time that money has been given for 
a refuge for birds. With this money 85,000 acres of land 
have been bought on the Louisiana coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico. These acres are to be kept in the condition 
that will make them most attractive to the thousands 
of birds that are each year driven south by the cold 
storms of winter. 

At first we may wonder why so large a sum of money 
should be spent in this way, but when we are told 
that insects cost this country every year more than 
$400,000,000 by ruining fruit, grain, cotton, and vege- 
tables, and that birds help to destroy these insects, we 
understand. Farmers spread poisons and work dili- 
gently to kill the pests that do so much damage, but 
none of their remedies are so effective as the work of the 

216 



HOW A NATION HELPS TO SAVE 217 

birds. As we all know, many birds feed largely on in- 
sects, and where the birds most abound there the injury 
to the farmers' crops is the least. Therefore, it is to 
aid the farmers, and to make our food cost us less, that 
this refuge for birds has been established. 

This shows how important in the eyes of our thought- 
ful men are the food crops of our country. Now, as 
never before, congressmen at Washington and business 
men everywhere are trying to prevent useful things from 
being wasted. Birds are protected, not only because they 
eat insects, but because they also feed on weed seeds. 
One of the men in the United States Biological Survey 
has estimated that in Iowa in one season the tree sparrows 
ate 1,750,000 pounds of weed seed. It is hard to believe 
that such small creatures as the sparrows could take care 
of such a large diet, but birds are big eaters. And it is 
less expensive to let them keep down the weeds than for 
the farmer to plough them up. 

Did you realize that a country must be as saving and 
thrifty as families have to be? When this country was 
first settled it seemed to have boundless forests, mead- 
ows, rivers, mineral wealth, and fertile soil, and no one 
thought of saving trees or land or brooks. Our fathers 
and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have been very 
extravagant with the great country that stretches from 
ocean to ocean and, as a result, all of us and those who 



218 STORIES OF THRIFT 

are born after us must be very saving. The govern- 
ment is spending huge sums of money in helping us 
plant trees in our woodlands, to stock brooks and ponds 
with fish, and to show us how to take care of the soil 
so that it will not wear out. 

Not long ago a Georgia farmer wrote to a man at 
Washington who knew a great deal about farm land, 
saying: "I can't make any money on my farm. Will 
you help me?" The man from Washington went down 
to see the farmer. 

"Your land is all worn out," he said. " You and those 
who owned it before you have wasted your soil. You 
have grown crop after crop just as fast as you could 
without giving the land any food or any rest. How 
much work do you think you could do if you never had 
any rest, and had no food except what you happened 
to find near you? Soil gets hungry and thirsty just as 
horses and cattle do. The harder you make it work by 
growing corn, potatoes, and other crops, the hungrier it 
grows. Give your farm plenty of water and food and 
rest, and you will have no trouble." 

The farmer looked at the strange man as if he thought 
him "a bit queer in the head." 

"Come with me," said the stranger, "and I will show 
you what I mean." 

Leading the farmer out into his ploughed land, he 



HOW A NATION HELPS TO SAVE 219 

took from his pocket a bottle of liquid, a little of which 
he poured into the ground in several places. Then he 
turned to some rocks. The moment the fluid from the 
bottle touched the rock it bubbled vigorously. 

"I have your secret," said the man. "The rock bub- 
bled because there is lime in it; the soil didn't bubble 
because you have used up all the lime. You can't grow 
crops without feeding your land lime. What I should 
advise is to grind up these lime rocks, and spread the 
powder over the soil. This would give it what we call 
carbonate of lime, which every rich soil must have." 

Our government employs men to give all their time to 
studying the worn-out soils in different parts of the coun- 
try, so that before it is too late they may tell the farmers 
how to care for their land. Not every worn-out soil 
needs lime, but any land that fails to produce good crops 
needs treatment of some kind. 

It seems strange to think that the time may come 
when this great nation will be so poor that large numbers 
of people will want to migrate to some other country. 
But men have figured out that, unless we stop wasting 
our minerals, our land, and our forests, we shall come to 
grief. By the time our population is 200,000,000, if we 
use our land as recklessly as we now do, it will take all 
the wheat that we can raise to feed our own people, and 
we shall have none to sell to other countries. 



220 STORIES OF THRIFT 

We have destroyed our timber three times as fast as 
it grows, and already more than half of it has been cut 
and used. When we can no longer mine our own coal 
and iron, raise our own wheat and timber, then we shall 
begin to be a poor nation. 

But men, women, and children have become alarmed, 
and all over the country earnest efforts are being made 
to keep from wasting anything that nature gives. Men 
are even planting trees in forests. Many of the State 
agricultural experiment stations raise spruce, pine, and 
other seedlings which they send free to any man who 
will plant them where they will grow best. 

Along the seashore the government has built hatch- 
eries where lobsters and other fish are hatched to throw 
into the sea to multiply and furnish us with sea food. 
We have been wasteful even in our fishing, and now we 
must pay the penalty. One day recently, in the middle 
of August, a large, heavily built automobile was racing 
at top speed across a Western desert of the United States. 
There were five men and a huge box, or tank, which seemed 
to contain something precious, for the men worked over 
it ceaselessly. Not for a moment was it left to itself. 
Even at nightfall they did not stop; the automobile 
rushed on and the men worked on. When at last the 
lights of the little Oregon town to which they were 
bound came to view, it was nearly midnight, but men, 



HOW A NATION HELPS TO SAVE 221 

women, and a brass band were waiting to welcome the 
desert travellers. 

The interest centred in the large box and its contents. 
Can you guess what it was? It was several thousand 
fish, which the fish-warden of the State and his assis- 
tant had brought at the urgent request of the towns- 
people, who wanted to stock their thin little stream. In 
spite of the fact that they had made all speed, and had 
taken every possible care, never ceasing to stir the water 
to keep it fresh, the fish were dead, and the little town 
was bitterly disappointed. This does not sound like a 
story of this country of today. But it is, and it shows 
that men are beginning to try to make up for the waste 
of the past. If we are willing to be taught there is no 
reason why in the coming years we cannot be as saving 
of resources as we have been wasteful in the past. 

Not only is our government trying to make the people 
keep from wasting soil and trees, and other natural re- 
sources, but it is spending large sums of money in study- 
ing how to change swamps and deserts into fertile land, 
and how to make every part of the country prosperous. 
It pays one man ten thousand dollars a year just to make 
experiments with our fruits and vegetables, to try to 
produce kinds that will be hardy enough to withstand 
frost and heat. This man has grown a hardy potato 
which can be raised in any part of the United States, 



222 STORIES OF THRIFT 

and has added over a million dollars to the wealth of 
the country. Now we even hear that this man is trying 
to grow a new form of cactus in the desert. In some of 
our Western States there are big stretches of waste-land, 
or deserts, which have been difficult even to cross, be- 
cause of the lack of food and drink. But the new kind 
of cactus is juicy and good to eat, and can be used to sat- 
isfy both hunger and thirst. This may mean that some 
time in the future our deserts can be travelled in perfect 
safety and comfort. 

When we peer into the future, can we think of a 
better motto for our government, our State, and our- 
selves than "Waste not"? 



